Check out Local News to find out what is new in your national union from coast-to-coast across Canada Doman Forest Industries gets a new lease on life As Doman Industries was headed into bankruptcy, new investors, including a subsidiary of Brascan, is purchasing majority control of the company. The company is going from nine to six mills and Local 1-80 president Bill Routley says that the company appears prepared to sort out severance pay issues at its Nanoose Forest Products mill in Chemainus. In Nanaimo, the crew has agreed to three eight hours shifts. “It’s quite a change,” says Brother Routley. “If there would have been bankruptcy, our members would have been left with more uncertainty.” PORT ALBERNI BC License transfers taking place as mills back to work in Port The Weyerhaeuser Company is trans- ferring its tree farm licences to IWA contractors in the Alberni Valley. The union hammered out agreements to oversee a smooth transition from Weyco to Hayes Trucking in the Franklin River Division. Meanwhile Coulson Forest Products and four First Nations bands are attempting to nego- tiate an agreement over Sproat Lake division. Local president Monty Mearns says the union expects full compliance with the IWA Coast Master Agreement in any case. Elsewhere, all cedar mills went back to work by early December and it appears that most local mills and logging operations (weather permitting) should be going back to work the first week of January. ALBERTA Making progress with Weyco Local 1-207 president Mike Pisak reports ratification of a three year collective agreement at the Weyco Drayton Valley sawmill and OSB plants, covering about 250 members. There are wage increases of two per cent in each year along with some benefit improvements. At the Weyco Slave Lake OSB plant the union went to mediation for 105 workers on November 22, before reaching a three year deal in early December. It is also in negotiations for four workers at the company’s reload yard in Sunnybrook. SASKATCHEWAN Hudson Bay OSB 1000 crew donates coffee fund savings The IWA Members’ Association from the now-defunct Weyco OSB 1000 mill in Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan donated about $25,000 in savings from their coffee fund to various good causes in town. Union committee members Bruce Crittenden, Jerry Hayward, Randall Chuckry, Lorne Schindel and Ed Soules presented donations to vari- ous causes, including the Hudson Bay Children’s Co-op, the Senior Tenants Association at Churchill Place, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education pro- gram (DARE), the Hope Foundation, Donor’s Choice, the Hudson Bay Health Care Facility and to help pay for medical travel for an individual. Local 1-184 president Paul Hallen said the LOCAL ASST OO UMMM] LOCAL 700 TORONTOON = Local 700's Tom Lowe (m.) is seen at this year's national convention with members from Canac Kitchens, Thiran Sinnapan (I) and Miguel Giocochea. A big sub-local is building solidarity The IWA Toronto Local 700 is working hard to build solidarity and service between 900-1000 members within the Canac Kitchens complex in | Thornhill. That means dealing with the largest bargaining unit in the entire IWA. Not since the 1950s, 6os and 70s, in the days of giant sawmill and ply- wood mills on the coast of British Columbia or in the-now defunct RCA Victor plant in Owen Sound, Ontario, have so many workers been located in one place. Local president Ron Diotte and business agent Tom Lowe, &\ accompanied by commitee members, are close to officially opening | a sub-local office on the premises. Brother Sivaraj Pasupathillai, §Y chairperson, and Yuhua Xia and Everth Gonzalez, first and second CAN, 0 vice chair, respectively, have helped make the union stronger. “The new office will be a place to keep all the stewards’ materials together and help us with the flow of grievances and other issues such as job postings and proper payment for work done,” says Brother Diotte. The IWA has edu- cated 6 new committee members each month in the areas of grievance han- dling and health and safety. Brother Lowe, the union’s former national safety director, has taken the bull by the horns and is providing educational training, | solving grievances and handling day-to-day issues with a 14 member commit- tee. “The plant is like a mini-United Nations of cultural diversity and is a place where we are working to build a strong sense of solidarity in the bargaining unit,” says Brother Lowe. “With new management at the plant, we have cre- | ated open dialogue and are starting to build a workable agenda.” local union is proud that the members have stepped forward to assist causes in the community. 2171 | VANCOUVER/LOGGERS Local union and Weyerhaeuser reached agreement in QCI In October Local 2171 and Weyco reached an agreement to restructure logging operations in the Queen Charlotte Island’s TFL 39. A court- ordered decision giving the Haida First Nations approval rights for harvesting plans has made the company term its QCI operations no longer viable. What was once a 1.18 million cubic meter annual cut has plummeted to less than half. The company will close its con- tract camp at Dinan Bay by the end of next year. Local union officer Nick Doubinin negotiated, ratified by a sound majority, 40 severance packages for the Edwards and Associate crews, some retirement packages and pack- ages for a limited number of fallers. In addition Brother Doubinin reports the union has negotiated significant reloca- tion allowances. THE PAS MB Contract talks head towards conciliation in Manitoba Following a meeting with Tolko on November 13 the IWA negotiating com- mitttee, headed by national vice presi- dents Harvey Arcand and Wilf McIntyre, have asked for concilitation from the Manitoba LRB. Both sides with meet with a conciliator on December 16. The company refuses to negotiate and wants to roll the agree- ment over to 2004. It is also trying to introduce non-union maintenance con- tractors into its 240 person mill in The Pas. The local is also bargaining for up to 70 workers in woodlands operations. Weyco NIT crew votes 56 per cent in favour of Ready proposal The crew at Weyerhaeuser North Island Timber voted a narrow 56 per cent in favour of a proposal put forth by mediator Vince Ready to deal with a Weyco contracted out feller bunchers and highway log trucks. The company is also increasing its use of contractors and had put company employees in a position where their seniority was run- ning out. “No one can say this is an agreement that is good for the union but it allows people to get on with their lives and gives them some severance for their years of service,” says Local 363 president Rick Wangler. CRANBROOK BC Tembec value-added mill back up in southeastern Interior Local 1-405 reports the Tembec value- added finger-jointing mill in Cranbrook which makes 2x3, 2x4, and 2x6’s, started up after a one year closure. A “state-of the-art” computer was taken out and “replaced with human brains” says local president Bob Matters. Forty-one IWA members are back to work as a result. Elsewhere in the local there is no sign of the ATCO Park Siding mill reopening yet and the local is working with the company to get the Slocan Forest Products in Slocan restarted. 1-417 Local releases all plant chairs for two weeks of education This fall Local 1-417 released all plant chairpersons for a two week period to focus on education and orientation. They had the opportunity to spend two weeks at the local office to upgrade their skills. Included were a review of arbitration cases, letters of understand- ing with other companies, attendance at labour and management grievance meetings with other companies and attending to WCB cases. The latter may come in handy for the Weyerhaeuser Kamloops committee as the company has hired a person to manage all WCB files with a view to getting those on WCB back to work ASAP. President Joe Davies says this may cause all sorts of problems for the local and sub-local. KAMLOOPS BC KELOWNA BC Stress workshop held for local union membership The Kelowna local invited all local union members to a day long work shop on dealing with stress. The work- shop, which took place on December 7, was instructed by Mervyn Van Steinburg of the CLC’s Labour Participation Department for the United Way. “We find that more of our members and their families are feeling stress in today’s world,” says local pres- ident Troi Caldwell. “The uncertainty of the work environment with the soft wood lumber tariff as a backdrop is a major contributor.” Workers learned about causes, effects and how to cope. 6 | THE ALLIED WORKER DECEMBER 2002