Labour contracts
will take us
to the bottom

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT meant to
question the beliefs, integrity or ability of
any faller. In recent years more and
more fallers, many whom are good,
solid union men and productive work-
ers, have been forced by major forest
companies to take labour contracts on
the Coast. Some have been severed
from their company or have been laid-
off until their seniority runs out.
Weyerhaeuser is trying to eliminate
all of its company fallers' positions in

ere eenomanl

OPINION
BY KEN COTTINI

favour of contractors and I have no

doubt that they eventually wantlabour

contractors to step in for less money.
This trend has big implications for all
IWA members as other major
employers would be forced to follow
to compete. If they ever succeed in
eliminating bargaining unit fallers,
other phases will be next on the list.
Labour contractors are forced to bid
against each other in a race to the bot-
tom. They are paid a lump sum of
money and often have to pay the costs
of their own WCB premiums, insur-
ance, saws, pickups, gas and oil, etc. |

FOREST COMPANIES
ARE INCREASINGLY FORCING
THEIR EMPLOYEES INTO
LABOUR CONTRACTS

and most likely don't get paid travel
time. To make ends meet, the normal
six and one-half hour work day can go ©
out the window and production is —
speeded-up, causing further safety
risks. Many have to bid so low that
they can't keep their pension or other
benefit plans paid-up. Some day they
are going to need that pension plan
when they retire.

It's a race to the bottom that is tak-
ing place and we all need to face it.
With Liberal forest policies coming,
things are going to get more uncer-
tain. The question is what can we do
as workers and union members?

In my opinion, company fallers
and labour contractors have to unite
and support each other, We are all in
the same barrel and face the same pit-
falls and genuine dangers — whether
they be the eventual meltdown of
wages and working conditions the

IWA has fought over 65 years to —
obtain, proper safety and supervisory
conditions, and/or basic job security
issues. We can look to the WCB's new —
faller certification program and safe |

work practices to get employers to
back off on the cost savings they get

by forcing unsafe production speed-

ups which can kill and maim more
workers. We also have to reach out to
yo 1 workers who may not know —
the IWA's history and where good
standards for wages and benefits
e from.

Most of all, I think that all fallers |

should work with their union to

address these issues.
Ken Cottini, a former executive board

member of IWA Local 363, is a faller at
TimberWest’s Oyster River division

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

It’s time for us to
pull together
like we always have

IWA members from coast-to-coast
must understand the importance of this
year’s B.C. forest industry negotiations

BY DAVE HAGGARD

IN BRITISH COLUMBIA your union’s provincial negoti-
ating committee has already begun negotiations for master
collective bargaining agreements in the forest industry. In
late March we exchanged demands with the Interior Forest
Labour Relations Association in the southern Interior in our
sincere desire to set a pattern agreement which we hope to
take to other parts of the industry.

At our provincial wage and contract conference in January,
the IWA put together a set of very reasonable demands which
recognize the tough times that this industry is in. Even in
those tough times, companies like Canfor, West Fraser,
Weldwood and Interfor are making good profits. A lot of that
profit-making capacity has arisen from the fact that IWA
members have bitten the bullet and have bent over backwards
to make their operations run more efficiently.

Our members are doing their part to pull through these
tough times. Unfortunately many have suffered permanent
closures while others have suffered indefinite shutdowns and
other forms of job insecurity.

The effects of U.S. tariffs have been felt in various parts of
Canada but most heavily on the Coast — which has been hit
with other issues in the global marketplace. Now, as we head
deeper into negotiations, the B.C. government has intro-
duced legislation to change the province's forest policy by
radically dismantling the “social contract” between the public
resource and private industry. We anticipate that Coast nego-
tiations could be affected as a result.

Your union has stepped forward to offer the government
our union’s ideas in the form of a “social accountability
clause” to any changes in policy. We are the only ones putting
forward positive suggestions to a Liberal government that
only claims it cares about forest workers and communities.
Just as we deal with government, so too are we attempting to

deal with the industry in a straight forward and honest
manner. This industry needs stablility — not uncertainty. And
our members need stability and security, as does our union.

We need to seek constructive, joint solutions at the bar-
gaining table to get back on track and deal with the trade and
competitive challenges the forest industry faces.

At the bargaining table we will soon be able to detect if the
industry in both the Interior and Coast will bargain in good
faith. I’m cautiously optimistic that we can with most com-
panies. But we already have some major problems with
Weyerhaeuser on the Coast which is aggressively trying to
bust up bargaining units and has a continuous agenda of
contracting out jobs, phase-by-phase, to labour and non-
union contractors.

We have successfully kept bargaining units together in
some areas, but Weyco continues to cut the IWA no quarter
as far as getting rid of company fallers and beating up other
workers. Weyerhaeuser has been put on notice by our union
that their actions strike at the very heart of our union and
what it has fought for over its more than 65 years.
Weyerhaeuser is trying to destroy the bargaining authority of
the IWA on the Coast and we cannot let them succeed
because every other company would try to do the same.

The struggle of B.C. woodworkers in these times is monu-
mental and the struggles on the Coast are key to the future of

- our organization. We fought a four and one-half month
strike over these issues in 1986 and it may be necessary to
get into a battle on contracting out in 2003.

That is why all IWA Canada members, from coast-to-coast
must be aware of what is taking place in B.C. We have a
tradition of helping each other in every province and region
where we have members — and this may prove the year when
B.C. workers call on the rest of the union for that solidarity.

EDITORIAL

Hey, what about Canadian sovereignty?

In their attempts to seek a ‘negotiated settlement’ with Canada over
softwood lumber the Americans are pushing for control over our industry

THEY WANT TO SEND IN AN OCCUPATION FORCE of
U.S. Department of Commerce auditors. We're not talking
about Baghdad here — we're talking about Victoria B.C.
That's right. In early January, as part of its proposal to solve
the softwood lumber war between the U.S. and Canada, U.S.
Department of Commerce undersecretary Grant Aldonis
tabled a series of measures calling for Canadian compliance
to American trade and commerce demands.

In January Mr. Aldonas release a policy paper (see article by
Kim Pollock on pages ten and eleven) calling for, among other
things, the permanent inclusion of American monitors into
the B.C. Forest Ministry’s office to oversee the implementa-
tion and maintenance of “free-market” reforms dictated and
approved by the Americans themselves. Then and only then,
says the U.S., could there be a reduction in countervailing

| duties. There is nothing said about antidumping duties.

This judge and jury mechanism would monitor the follow-
ing aspects of forest policy by a Canadian province: timber
harvest volume, employment levels, investment levels in
Canada, lumber output, and stumpage rates. Critical of our
system of publicly-held Crown lands, the DOC is against
firms that want to process B.C. timber actually having to be
located in the province. That means they want open log mar-
kets where B.C. logs would flow to American mills.

The U.S. proposal also demands
timber auctions, although the
Americans might consider the privati-
zation of Crown land as an alternative.
Nowhere does it mention that the U.S.
itself prohibits the export of American
logs from federal or state lands.

IWA Canada national president
Dave Haggard has repeatedly warned
the B.C. government and the public
about the outright loss of sovereignty

i

T WANT YOUR LOGS
FOR US. SAWMILLS:

‘1HAVE A CONCERN that would occur under such a sce-

THAT PROVINCES, 22tio and about the instability and

unpredictability that would occur for

IN PARTICULAR companies, workers and communities

B.C., WILL BITEON under a move to open timber auctions.

, “I have a concern that provinces, in

Ut alee particular B.C., will bite on the U.S.
= DAVE HAGGARD

proposal,” he said, adding that it would
divide Canada and forever link our for-
est policy to U.S. whims. He warned
that if the Liberals, who are on a path of gutting the “social con-
tract” parts of the Forest Act, sell-out rural B.C. workers, and
communities “they will pay a high political price.”

IWA PRESIDENT

APRIL 2003 THE ALLIED WORKER | 5