Labour laws allow decert in Juniper IT WAS TEXT BOOK union bust- ing at the Juniper Lumber and I-Joist plant in Juniper New Brunswick as scabs voted 46-39 to decertify IWA Local 306 in October after the union had been on strike since October 15, 2001. “We are really disappointed but real- ize it’s the anti-worker climate and anti-union labour laws in New Brusnwick that allow this kind of thing to happen,” says national third vice president Wilf McIntyre. “Even though the laws are stacked against us we managed to show the workers and the province that the IWA is a union that will fight and not abandon work- ers.” Local union president Mario Fortunato says that even those that voted against the IWA realize that the union kept all of its promises to work- ers to support them during the strike. “T still get calls from the workers in the plant,” he says. “Those who didn’t scab are still loyal to the IWA and even - those who did are haying thoughts.” Throughout the dispute Nexfor, a giant multinational forest company, forced the open shop at the bargain- = Wilf Mcintyre ing table. It wanted to weaken and destroy the IWA bargaining unit. “Nexfor lost money during the strike and is still losing money but they used deep pockets to keep the IWA out,” says Brother McIntyre. A New Brunswick provincial judge denied the IWA the right to secondary picketing of other Nexfor operations in the province. “That limited our ability to put economic pressure on the com- pany,” says McIntyre. second Another major obstacle that unions face in the province is that there is no first contract legislation. “In New Brunswick employers are able to thumb their noses and ignore the union,” says Brother Fortunato. “We have the kind of labour laws that you’d see in a Banana Republic. Workers are told they have the right to join a union and that they live in a democratic society. Any company that a union organizes should not have the option of not signing a first contract.” On the positive side, the struggle at Nexfor has raised the profile of the IWA in the province. “We did get our message out in the media and that is rare in the province,” says McIntyre. Fortunato says the strike has given the IWA a good name all through the valley. “We are not a union that cuts and runs and workers know that,” adds Brother Fortunato. PHOTO BY WILF MCINTYRE Local 306 struck against Nexfor, a company which pushed an open shop agenda at an operation in Juniper. Locked out lumber mill IWA Canada Local 2171 gets support from the national strike fund to beat back concessions at Skeena Cellulose THE UNION HAS TAKEN aunited stance against Skeena Cellulose in Terrace, B.C. and opened up the national strike fund to assist workers the union says has been locked out by a concession-seeking employer. On May 18 the company’s CEO tabled a document called a “Fresh Start” which demanded elimination or significant altercation of every major article in its collective agree- ment with the IWA. The CEO also used the media to tell workers they should leave the union if they want to get back to work and said it would refuse to call them back unless a new agreement was accepted. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,”says Local 2171 president Darrel Wong, who referred the extraordinay case to National President Dave Haggard. Brother Haggard, in turn, took it to the IWA’s National Strike Finance Committeee which recommended strike pay for the lockout situation. The local also took the case the B.C. VE NEVER SEEN fund. “We have to fight back to ensure that this type of tactic will never be successful against IWA members,” says Brother Haggard. Following the conven- tion Haggard travelled to Terrace to meet with Labour Relations Board ANYTHING LIKE the crew and the union to get an illegal lockout |] [T IN MY LIFE to show support for the declared. It was not ruled 180 workers. a lock out, even though |] ~ DARREL WONG Since that time the the employer stated in |] LOCAL 2171 company and the IWA the press that workers only would return after agreeing to concessions. At the union’s national convention in September, Brother Haggard took the issue to the floor where delegates voted overwhelmingly to endorse support from the national strike have met to seek an agreement that will get the mill going and, from the IWA’s perspec- tive, protect essential parts of the col- lective agreement. But talks went off the rails on December 13 because of demands for extreme concessions by the employer, says Wong. Industrial Hardwood strike enters into fourth year IWA Local 2693 members at the Industrial Hardwood Products plant in Thunder Bay, Ontario entered into their fourth year on the picket line on November 8, 2002. Twenty-seven of 32 original strikers remain on the line as the company uses between 2-12 scabs to operate at a low level. It is the longest strike in local union history. “Our members continue to see scabs, protected by provincial labour laws, go across the line,” says local union president Joe Hanlon. IWA to challenge Ontario labour laws on decerts Early next year the union will be challenging the Ontario law that allows replacement workers to vote on decertifying a union during a strike. In late November Local 700 suffered a setback when replace- ment workers tipped a decert vote 62-61 against the IWA at the Anagram Premier ResCare facility in St. Catherines. “Our lawyer will be arguing the case that replacement workers simply do not have the same ‘community of interest’ as the workers who were ~_ there when the = Norm Rivard union was voted in,” says national second V.P. Norm Rivard. Before the decert application was counted, the union had reached a collective agreement with the employer following mediation by the OLRB. But the board did not want to enforce the agreement as it intended to conduct the decert bal- lot. The union had also filed bad faith bargaining charges. Local 700 has been on strike at the private health care facility since April 15. This summer the American compa- ny was caught bringing in scabs from the U.S. IWA organizer Fran Borsellino contacted the RCMP and Immigration Canada investigated. Workers hunkering down to continue strike in Ignace In Ignace Ontario, striking IWA Local 2693 members are keeping the pres- sure on their employer, the Bowater Corporation, to renew an existing collective agreement that that com- pany aquired when it purchased the mill. They went on strike in early August. Since the purchase, the company has ploughed over $25 million into the state-of-the-art operation, but has decided to shut down the plan- er, eliminatng between eight to 16 jobs, depending on the shift config- uration. Bowater also wants to con- tract out yard work. The local union has made some moves to resolve the issues at hand but it appears the company is unwilling to move, says Joe Hanlon, president of the local union. The company also wants the right to schedule any shift that it deems necessary. IWA members are getting ready for the cold weather on the picket line and have their heated trailer ready as the strike continues. DECEMBER 2002 THE ALLIED WORKER | &)