Notre Syndicat L’IBA est en Gréve!

THEY HAVE BEEN OUT since
May 5 in the small Ottawa Valley
community of Fort Coulonge to bring
their employer to his senses and
negotiate a fair collective agreement.
Seventy-five IWA Local 400 mem-
bers at the Produits Forestieres hard-
wood and softwood mill have been
battling their employer for a shorter-
term agreement with significant
wage and benefit increases. They are
coming off of a six-year agreement
with minimal wage increases. That
agreement was designed to assist the
mill's owner into spending some $15
million in modernizing the facility.
“Our members have sacrificed
enough,” says IWA Local 1000 pres-
ident Michael McCarter, whose local
services the Quebec membership.
“Now they want a little pay-back for
all the hard work they have done.”

Base rate in the operation is only

$11.60 per hour while top rates for
trades is at $17.15 per hour.

7 In mid-June the
union successfully
fought off an
attempt at an
injunction applica-
tion through the
Superior Court of
Quebec. The com-
a pany tried to cur-
Michael McCarter, 1 picket line
activities as it has been using super-
visors to chip round hardwood logs
and send chips to the Portage du Fort
Smurfit-Stone paper mill, about a
half-hour drive.

“Any injunction should be han-
dled by the provincial labour board
and not the Superior Court — we're
glad they threw out an injunction
that we weren’t following anyways,”
says Brother McCarter.

Sub-local plant chair Daniel
Dagenais told The Allied Worker that
mill owner and local businessman
Gustav Brunet is trying to break the
union’s strike by running other near-
by mills and utlilize his own trucks to
by-pass Ft. Coulonge. “This guy is
doing what he can to give us a hard
time,” says Brother Dagenais.

Community support for the strik-
ers has been strong, with food donat-
tions and moral support. Dagenais
notes that the crew has had to endure
the “normal ups and downs that you
feel when you're on a picket line.”

Dagenais thanks the entire IWA
for its support and gives special
thanks to Local 1000 sub-locals
which have donated money.

The modern, two-line mill handles
everything from short logs to 17 foot-
ers. It cuts sugar maple, red maple,
white and yellow birch and pine.

PHOTO COURTESY IWA LOCAL 1000
= Local 1000 members walked out in early May to get a little pay-back for helping their boss for several years.

Trying to derail privatization
The union’s BC Rail membership is taking a strike vote
to back their proposal to save the Crown corporation

IN THE ‘96 ELECTION Gordon
Campbell suggested he would priva-
tize BC Rail. He lost that election. In
his 2001 New Era campaign plat-
form, Campbell said the Liberals
would not sell or privatize BC Rail.
They won in a landslide.

Some two years later, 90% of
BC’ers asked believe Campbell has
broken that promise. The reason: the
BC Liberals have put out a Request
For Proposal for the purchase of BC
Rail operations.

British Columbians are upset over
this move; particularly in communi-
ties straddling the line, which
stretches between North Vancouver
and Ft. Nelson. A fight-back cam-
paign is being spearheaded by the
Council of Trade Unions at BC Rail
which includes IWA Local 1-424.

“We have put forward a plan to
keep the railway public, increase
operating viability, restore passenger
service and help pay down debt,”
says local president Frank Everitt.

The Council proposal has not
attracted a favourable response from

the railway or the shareholder — the
B.C. government. And that, say the
unions, calls into question the
motives for selling. “At the very least
they owe it to the people of British
Columbia to look seriously at our
proposal,” says Everitt.

Despite government claims that
BCR is a financial bane to the taxpay-
er, the Crown Corporation earned an
operating profit of $70 million in
2002 and has increased profits by
28.5% in the first half of 2003. The
railway is predicted to earn $200
million over the next thee years.

So the question being asked is why
sell? The government says that a pri-
vate sector influence will allow for
efficiencies and reinvestment. The
Council of Trade Unions argues that
BCR employees have improved costs
and efficiency in recent years and it
now has the best operating ratio of
any railway in North America.

“Why sell off a go-year old asset
that provides jobs, important services
to rural communities, and makes
money to boot? It’s simply bad public

policy,” says IWA National President
Dave Haggard. A leaked document
shows that the front-runner in the
bidding, Canadian National, would
reduce the workforce by 70%, elimi-
nating 1,223 jobs, which could be a
knock-out punch for rural commu-
nities across British Columbia.

The Council of Trade Unions has
launched a public awareness cam-
paign and is taking a strike vote to
back its proposal to save BC Rail.
Without a contract since December
2002, the union proposal calls for a
three-year contract with no wage
increases, allowing the company to
save money, stay public, restore pas-
senger service, pay down debt and
reinvest in the railway. To date the
government has ignored the union
proposal and is proceeding with the
sale. A final bidder is to be
announced in September and, fol-
lowing negotiation of the final terms
of sale, the new owner would take
the Crown corp over in early 2004.

~ Article by Scott Lunny, Director of Policy
and Information Services

PHOTO BY TOM LOWE
= On the picket line at Benson.

Benson Architectural strike
lasts less than one month
IWA Local 700 members at the
Benson Architectural Moulding plant
in Etobicoke, Ontario voted 30-7 in
favour of an 18-month collective
agreement on June-27, ending a
walkout which began twenty-five
days earlier. Local union president
Ron Diotte says the short-term
agreement will allow the employer
to address market issues with U.S.
customers and give workers a wage
increase and better contract lan-
guage in areas including job post-
ings, temporary transfers, recalls
and other seniority issues.

a Ete
FILE PHOTO NORMAN GARCIA

= IWA member at Vacform in ‘98.

Vacform crew hits the bricks
Local 500 members at the Vacform
Plastics plant in Brantford went on
strike on July 26 over the primary
issues of wage increases and an

8 hour day. The employer offered a
6 year agreement with a 30 cents an
hour wage increase in each year.
The workers demand a 20 minute
paid lunch included in an 8 hour
work day. On August 11, the
company began to scab out the
operation with four individuals.
Local 500 members from the nearby
Cascades Dominion and Flexia plant
have dropped by to bolster the line.
The collective agreement expired
on June 30.

Bowater Ignace strike continues,
picketers pass one year mark
August 1 marked one year on the
picket line for Local 2693 members
at the Bowater Ignace sawmill. No
talks are planned with the company
as the union remains determined to
negotiate a fair and reasonable
agreement and prevent the compa-
ny from unilaterally imposing shifts.
Contracting out is also an important
issue. Bowater had purchased the
mill from local entrepreneur Mario
Letournea and has spend some $25
million in the state-of-the-art facility.
The plant is ready to go, and could
employ more than 50 workers when
operational. The local says Bowater
has opened a new sawmill in
Thunder Bay and is already paying
that non-union crew more.

+MUGUST 2003 “THE ALLIED WORKER ] 9