ws ORGANIZING AND GROWTH

Mobile home plant campaign
In southwestern Ontario, the union
is working on an organizing drive at
the Northlander mobile home plant
in Exeter, Ontario. Membership
cards are being signed up and a
vote at the OLRB may be soon forth-
coming. National organizing coordi-
nator Mike Hunter is working with
Local 500 members Alex Irvine from
the General Coach plant in Hensall
and Steve Zarnik from Dashwood
Homes in St. Trillium. The company
has tried to stave off the union drive
by offering workers bonuses and a
Pay raise.

Apollo concrete goes IWA

Fraser Valley, B.C. Local 1-3567 is
Pleased to report that 20 new mem-
bers at the Apollo Concrete plant in
Abbottsford. Organizer and business
agent Brian Lund conducted the
campaign between mid-September
and early October, signing a majori-
ty of the workforce, which produces
concrete patio blocks, and stepping
stones. The local union has always
had an organizing program and the
new bargaining unit has added to 1-
3567's diverse membership base.

Retirement home goes IWA

Local 1000 reports that 13 workers
at the Rogers Cove Retirement
Home in Huntsville voted to join the
IWA. Thirteen workers are now in
the bargaining unit following a cam-
paign conducted by organizer
Angelo Sanseverino and John
Goldthorp. “Job security was the
main issue that prompted these
workers to join the union,” says
Brother Sanseverino. The local
already represents workers at four
other retirement homes and three
operations in Huntsville (Canusa
CPS, Tembec and the Huntsville
Animal Shelter).

Getting the bottle makers too
Local 306 in New Brunswick should
soon represent six production work-
ers at Bercon Atlantic Plastics in
East Saint John. The company pro-
duces plastic containers for both the
recently-certified Baxter Dairy in
town and Northumberland Dairyin
Miramichi. The company has agreed
to union certificaton and to go to the
negotiating table.

Northern B.C. local applies
for cert at Quesnel Casino

The IWA bet that it could get over 70
workers into the union, so it rolled
out its first-ever organizing drive in
early October at the Billy Barker
Casino in Quesnel B.C. Local 1-
424's application is in front of the
B.C. Labour Relations Board, where
a decision is soon pending. Workers
are demanding respect and fairness
from their employer and want other
improvements including a clothing
allowance. Local 1-3567’s Gordie
Macintosh worked on the campaign,
accompanied later by the local
union’s Curtis Boucher, Joe
Clements and Claudia Saligarra.

PHOTO BY MARIO FORTUNATO

= Outside the Baxter yard, from I. to .r are Mike Blizzard, Todd Donald, Charlie Casey, Ron Hadland and Dave
Andrews. Charlie, Ron and Dave are on the negotiating team for the dairy.

NEW BRUNSWICK LOCAL GROWING IN DAIRY SECTOR

From the cow to the store

WE’RE MORE THAN JUST woodworkers, says [WA
Local 306 in New Brunwick. We're dairy workers too!
The small local is becoming “the union” in the
Maritime province’s dairy sector following the certifi-
cation of 50 workers into a bargaining unit at Baxter
Food Ltd. in Saint John on August 11.

Baxter is New Brunswick’s largest dairy products
company with satellite operations all over the
province and has a sizeable presence in neighbouring
Nova Scotia.

Local union president and organizer Mario
Fortunato told The Allied Worker that the certification
came quick. “The workers knew that we already rep-
resent Northhumberland Co-op (in Miramichi), and
that helped us gain the certification for Baxter.”

to the store,” says Mike Hunter, the IWA’s organizing
coordinator in Eastern Canada, who has organized in
the province several times over the last decade. “It’s
good to see that things are starting to happen for us
in the province. It’s been an uphill battle.”

Baxter has been non-union for close to 50 years. It
is a family-run business as well.

“Workers in New Brunswick are becoming less
intimidated when it comes to joining a union,” says
Wilf McIntrye, the union’s national third vice presi-
dent. “First Northumberland and then Baxter this
year — that shows the respect that the IWA is gaining
in the province,” he adds.

The union met for the first time with the company
in late November to kick-off negotiations. Meetings

“We're getting dairy workers, almost from the cow

are also set for mid-December and January 2003.

Union starts cn on Coast

THE NATIONAL UNION is
working with Local 2171 to fund
organizing efforts in the Coastal
local. It is also funding efforts to
keep an eye on the creeping use
of non-union contractors on
parts of Vancouver Island.

Local 2171 staffers Rick
McRae and Barb Cousineau
have recently been doing survey
work in the shellfish, fish pro-
cessing and aquaculture (fish
farming) industries on the
northern part of Vancouver
Island and mainland coast
regions. They have also leaflet-
ed small mills in the value-
added forest industry and dry-
land sorts.

“We're putting in special
efforts to organize the aquacul-
ture industry which is a grow-
ing one and is non-union,” says
Local 2171 president Darrel
Wong. “Our local has experi-
ence in representing workers in
isolated areas, which is the
same as exists in the aquacul-
ture industry.”

National union president
Dave Haggard says the IWA
offers the aquaculture sector
expertise in fighting for the
rights of workers with the WCB
and EI appeals, working condi-
tions, seniority rights and job
security — issues that desperate-
ly need addressing.

© Union jobs are being threatened by the use of non-union contractors.

Aquaculture, which today employs
about 4,000 B.C. workers, has been
the subject of recent threats of boy-
cotts by international environmental
groups, including Greenpeace.

“We have experience dealing with
radical green groups and we know
their tactics and how they operate,”
says Brother Wong. “This is a good
opportunity to spread word about the
IWA and it’s great we are able to use
the organizing fund to put organiz-
ers out into the field.”

Local 2171 business agent Sonny
Rioux is out in the bush, assisting
Local 363 to get a complete picture
on TimberWest’s and Weyco’s use of
non-union truckers and contractors.

Brother Rioux says that non-union
truckers are working long hours and
there are questions as to whether
they are being paid proper overtime
and benefits. “We have to keep a

close eye on this new trend,” he
adds.

Brother McRae says the union is
seeing rough times in aquaculture.
In one instance an employer perma-
nently laid off a group of workers,
only to recall them days later.

This was done in order to deny
the workers benefits they would
have accrued. “This is the environ-
ment that the non-union sector is
often faced with,” says McRae.

“Unfortunately there has not
been a lot of organizing activity in
B.C. over the past year and a half,
not just in the IWA, but across the
whole labour movement,” says Scott
Lunny, national director of policy
and information services. “Targeted
campaigns in areas where we are
comfortable and where we can help
out workers who need it is a good
place to get started.”

8 | THE ALLIED WORKER DECEMBER 2002