IFBWW looks for ways of
assisting CTF-IWA project
The International Federation of
Building and Woodworkers has
contacted IWA Canada national
president Dave Haggard to ask
how it could work with the IWA
in Chile, where the national
union has had a joint education
project on the go since 1999 (see
story right). The union’s south-
ern partner, the National
Confederation of Forest Workers
of Chile, is open to looking for
ways to work jointly with the
international federation, of which
it is an affiliate member along
with the IWA. In late January,
CTF president Sergio Gatica and
secretary general Sergio Araya
met in Puerto Alegre, Brazil with
the IFBWW’s William Street from
Geneva and federation regional
director Vicente Carrera.

Brother Haggard has informed
the IFBWW that the IWA is pre-
pared to work with all parties to
compliment the union‘s ongoing
efforts in Chile.

World bank discovers the
‘union advantage’ in report
Hallelujah! The powerful World
Bank has finally acknowleged
the powerful influence of trade
unions in combatting poverty
around the world and their
important role in contributing to
global economic stability.

In a recent report, the hand-
maiden of the global investment
community acknowleged that
“workers who belong to unions
earn higher wages, work fewer
hours, receive more training and
have longer job tenure.”

That's something that workers
arond the world could have told
them a long time ago!

Trade union leader elected
as new president of Brasil
On January 1, 2003 the south
American nation of Brazil swore
in former metalurgical worker
and trade union
leader Luiz

) Inacio Lula da

} Silva as its new
president. Lula,
a former shoe
shine boy born
into abject
poverty, has
vowed to wipe out hunger in a
nation where even conservative
estimates indicate that 50 million
of 175 million citizens are mired
in poverty.

Brazil, is the largest country in
terms of land mass and popula-
tion. On inaugaration day
President Lula said that if, by the
end of his term in office, every
Brazilian citizen has access to
three square meals a day, he will
have realized his life’s main goal.
Elected in a run-off ballot, the 57
year-old Lula led a slate of candidates
of the Workers’ Party of Brazil.

Lula da Silva

PHOTO BY ROLANDO QUINTUL

= At the CTF-IWA Education Centre in February, the |WA Women’s
Committee chairperson Brenda Wagg (front row, second from left), joined
with CTF Women’s committee leader Silvia Leiva, Bev Humphries (to
Brenda’s left) and participants in a course on collective bargaining.

Seventh course written with Chileans

Joint CTF-IWA education

centre makes
progress in new areas

As the CTF-IWA
Education centre
in Concepcion
Chile, heads into
its fourth year of

activities, the two

organizations are
pleased to continue to mark some
steady progress in their joint interna-
tional solidarity project. In early to mid-
February, a three person delegation
consisting of Local 2171’s Brenda
Wagg, Local 1-3567’s Bev Humphries

and Local 2693’s Rolando Quintul
joined with Silvia Leiva of the CTF’s
women’s department to write a new
course for women in the Chilean trade
union movement. “It was a valuable
experience for us,” says Sister Wagg,
who is the chairperson of the IWA
National Women’s Committee. “Many
of the same issues that trade union
women face in Canada are experienced
by Chilean women as well. Some of
them are magnified by the harsh
socio-economic conditions that exist
in Chile.”

The two IWA women, accompanied
by Brother Quintul, who doubled as
an  interpretor/course co-writer,
assisted Sister Leiva in putting together

a four-day course. The women’s leader-
ship course, when presented later this
year, will deal with numerous topics
including the right and responsibilities
of women in Chilean society, overcom-
ing barriers to participation, and issues
including different forms of discrimi-
nation that women face in the work-
place and in society. Public speaking
and confidence building are also
included in the course work.

Less than 10% of the CTF member-
ship of 6,500 are women. “They
(women) have a long way to go to catch
up to where the men are,” says Sister
Humphries. “We hope the information
and experiences that we shared will
help CIF women get on track.”
According to Brother Quintul, who is
also the [WA’s International Solidarity
Fund coordinator, the women’s course
will complement other courses created
and delivered at the education centre
which began to hold classes in March
of 2000. “The course stresses partici-
paton of women and the sharing and
comparison of experiences that work-
ers have — much in the same way that
the other courses do,” he says.

During their visit, the delegation met
with the entire national executive board
of the CIF and answered many ques-
tions about working life in Canada.
“They actually asked more questions of
us, than we had time to ask questions
of them!” explains Wagg. “They wanted
to know everything from what our
working conditions are like, to how we
collect union dues, to health care and
education, and to how we feel about
‘free trade’ issues.”

During its stay, the delegation also
met with provincial member of the
Central Unitaria de Trabajadores, the
Chilean trade union central in the near-
by city of Talcahuano. “The people we
met in Chile were wonderful,” says
Sister Humphries. “They were warm
and friendly, and it was hard to leave.
We miss them all.”

Think before you
drink your coffee!!

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK
all your life under the searing sun and
get paid next to nothing for your
labour? You’d work long, arduous
hours to make already fat coffee buyers
even fatter while your family starves.

That’s what is happening to coffee
farmers all over the world and human-
tarian organizations are trying to draw
the public’s attention to the problem.
They want coffee drinkers to buy fair
trade coffee, which ensures that coffee
growers and pickers get paid a fair
day’s wages for their work.

Here’s how bad things are, accord-
ing to Oxfam Canada. Ten years ago
poor countries received 30 cents for
every $1 of coffee beans sold. Today
they get less than 10 cents and as low as
less than two cents. In the past three
years international coffee prices have
dropped to a 30-year low and many
growers sell their beans for less than
they cost to produce. The beneficiaries?
Large coffee giants like Kraft (Sanka,
Nabob and Maxwell House), Procter
and Gamble (Folgers), Nestlé (Nescafé,
Tasters Choice and Hills Brothers) and

PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= Oxfam Canada sponsored street theatre in which coffee picker Juan Valdez
was wooed by a big corporate exec and a fair trader in downtown Vancouver.

Sara Lee (Douwe Egberts and Maison
du Café). These four conglomerates
buy nearly half of the world’s coffee
and production is exceeding demand.
As a result some 25 million coffee
producing workers in Central and
South America, Asian and African
countries are facing extreme poverty.
Oxfam and other organizations pro-
moting fair trade are calling for a Coffee
Rescue Plan which includes a call for
companies to pay a fair prices, destroy
their surplus stocks to increase

demand, target aid to the poorest farm-
ers to halt immediate suffering, and
develop value-added processing in cof-
fee producing countries.

Trade unions and their membership
can find out more about where to buy
certified fair trade coffee by contacting
Oxfam Canada (www.oxfam.ca or call
1-800-466-9326).

Oxfam and coffee fair traders are
endorsed by TransFair, the Canadian
agency which certifies fair trade goods.
For more info visit www.transfair.ca

12 it THE ALLIED WORKER APRIL 2003