IWA constitutional convention slated for Kelowna B.C.

THIS YEAR THE B.C. Interior City of
Kelowna, in the beautiful Okanagan
Valley, will play host to the sixty-sixth
annual convention of the IWA in
Canada. Over 170 delegates from 20
local unions are expected to attend.

The convention, which will be hosted
by IWA Southern Interior Locals 1-423,
1-405 and 1-417, is the seventeenth con-
Stitutional convention of IWA Canada.

The convention will take place at the
Capri Hotel between September 22-25.
It begins at 9:00 a.m. Registration starts
at 8:00 a.m., September 22.

In addition to opening remarks from
host locals and IWA National President
Dave Haggard, the convention’s tenta-

tive speakers include CLC president Ken”

Georgetti, B.C. Federation of Labour
president Jim Sinclair, Vancouver
Mayor Larry Campbell, Ontario
Federation of Labour president Wayne
Samuelson and visitors from the
International Association of Machinists
and Aerospace Workers.

The convention will also receive a spe-
cial presentation from Bob Parkinson,
chairperson of the Community Savings

Credit Union (formerly the IWA and
Community Credit Union). Delegates
will be informed that 6o years ago, the
IWA was the major player in founding a
credit union which has changed its
name, but remains a progressive force in
the community.

At the convention delegates will dis-
cuss and debate annual reports from the
national officers and the national safety
council. They will also debate constitu-
tional, legislative, policy, and occupation-
al health and safety resolutions.

“As always, our conventions encour-

age the good spirit of debate and we
encourage all delegates, especially first-
time delegates, to get up to the micro-
phones and say what’s on their minds,”
says Brother Haggard. “There’s no place
like an IWA convention for the exercise
of union democracy.”

National secretary-treasurer David
Tones says final preparations are under-
way to ensure another successful con-
vention. Kelowna Local 1-423 president
Troi Caldwell encourages union mem-
bers to enjoy what the city has to offer in
terms of facilities and attractions.

Canadian provinces

rolling-over with U.S.

British Columbia, Alberta
and Ontario intend to Americanize
provincial forest policies

CANADA’S THREE far-right govern-
ment’s have been planning the
Americanization of provincial forest

wolicies to cater to U-S. timber inter-
ests. Whereas, the British Columbia

government has been open about its
forest policy changes and has ignored
critics, including the WA and the CEP
since October of 2001, the Ontario and
Alberta gov-
| ernments
have been
sneaking
jaround
behind the
scenes with
made-in-
America for-
est policy pro-
cedures.

“Any way
you cut it,
these three
provinces are leading the sell-off of the
Canadian forest industry to U.S. inter-
ests. They are all catering, hook, line
and sinker to Uncle Sam’s unbridled
demands for access to our forests,”
says IWA president Dave Haggard.

The major policy changes being
directly advocated or bantered around
by government ministers in the three
provinces are the same: gut all social
contracts in legislation that link forests
to communities; allow companies to
eliminate minimum cut control
requirements; allow corporations to
buy, sell, trade and chop-up licenses on
Crown land; allow corporations easy
entrance and exit to and from forestry,
mills and markets; permit so-called
“free-market” forces to prevail over
timber pricing; and allow unilateral
mill closures without any penalty or
public accountability.

“This is the wild, wild American-
style approach to reforms that will

Dave Haggard

effect tens and quite possibly hundreds
of thousands of workers in these major
timber producing provinces,” says
national IWA president Dave Haggard.

“THEY ARE ALL CATERING,
HOOK, LINE AND SINKER, TO
UNCLE SAM’S UNBRIDLED
DEMANDS FOR ACCESS TO
OUR FORESTS”

- DAVE HAGGARD
PRESIDENT, IWA CANADA

“The losers will be workers, communi-
ties and families and the winners will
be giant forest companies like
International Paper, Georgia-Pacific,
and Weyerhaeuser who would wheel
and deal their way in and out of our
provinces, buying, selling, and trading
off licenses as if they were pokers

FILE PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= Local 2693 president Joe Hanlon, seen here with a local union logger, has
condemned the Ontario government for its pro-American policy direction.

chips,” he added. “In all three provinces
we've sent out strong messages to the
governments — stop what you are
doing; consult with forest-dependent
communities, workers, First Nations,
and other stakeholders and listen to
what the people have to say first. And
don’t capitulate to Americans because
U.S. timber companies will just chew
us up and spit us out.”

Alberta Local 1-207 president Mike
Pisak joined Haggard, CEP
Administrative Vice President Don
MacNeill and Alberta Federation of
Labour president Les Steel to meet with
Human Resources and Employment
Minister Clint Dunford on July 2 to

TOWN HALL MEETING OPPOSES LIBERALS

The IWA is lobbying against forest policy
changes introduced by the Liberals in B.C.
Similar changes are being discussed and
sought by provincial governments in
Alberta and Ontario.

In B.C. the

4 union has
Joined with
the CEP to
create public
awareness in
opposition to
such changes.

PHOTO COURTESY CEP

On July 24,
over 400 citizens on Northern Vancouver
Island gathered at a Town Hall meeting in
Port McNeill. Speakers including WA

president Dave Haggard and Local 2171
president Darrel Wong (above), the CEPs

Western Regional Vice President Dave
Coles, local politicians, and Doman
Industries president and CEP Rick Doman,
railed against Liberal forest policy and cir-
culated a petition calling on the govern-
ment to repeal changes to forest policy.
Liberal MLA Rod Visser got a clear mes-
sage and a petition to take to Victoria. It
stated, in part:

REPEAL BILLS 28, 29 and 30 and hold a full
stakeholder consultation process to discuss
any proposed changes to B.C.’s forest man-
agement legislation,

MAKE THESE DEMANDS KNOWN in very
strong terms, to Premier Gordon Campbell,
Minister of Forests Mike de Jong and
Minister of Sustainable Resource
Development Stan Hagen and the media.

lobby the govern-
ment not to cave
»| into American
j| interests. Brother
Pisak says the fate
of many forest-
dependent com-
| munities is in the
balance. “There
will be many mill
closures and dev-
astating fallout if the Klein government
goes ahead on an agenda it mapped out
secretly in
December of
2001,” he adds.
As election
time approaches
in Ontario, the
government has
confidential plans
to gut the social
J contract from

Mike Pisak

Forest Resources
é License. The
Ministry of Natural Resources is cueing
up a bill to take eight specific measures
on publicly-owned forests. Local 2995
president Guy Bourgouin says aware-
ness is growing among workers. “Our
members are asking just who does the
Ontario government represent — us or
the big American multinationals?”
Local 2693 president Joe Hanlon
says the capitulation to U.S. interests is
a high profile election issue. “We and
the NDP intend to get out there and tell
our members and the public what the
Conservatives are up to,” he says.

Guy Bourgouin

AUGUST 2003: THE ALLIED WORKER T 3