“ They (Weyerhaeuser) refuse to negotiate with us, they dragged their heels with First Nations... and
they are trying to bury us in contracting out grievances...”— Monty Mearns, President Local 1-85

“HISTORY REPEATED” IN NEGOTIATION YEAR

IWA National Fifth Vice president and Local 1-3567 president Sonny Ghag says
that talk of coming FIR demands for concessions are merely a smokescreen for the
real issue at hand — contracting out and destruction of bargain unit integrity.

The IWA and FIR are scheduled to resume meaningful negotiations, under an
August 6 order of the Labour Relations Board of B.C. A meeting is tentatively
scheduled for August 18. ;

“Our local membership is prepared to fight against concessions and they are pre-
pared to fight against wanton contracting out,” says Brother Ghag. “I say that if
fighting to protect the bargaining unit is going to be a strike issue - when the time
is right, let’s get at it!” Local 1-3567 has seen contracting out in the logging sector
and heavy layoffs in manufacturing. In the mills, the Mill and Timber Flavelle
Cedar operation and Interfor operations have been the worse violators. “We've
nipped it in the bud with Interfor but Flavelle is still a major problem (see local
union news page seven). At Weyerhaeuser’s New Westminister lumber division
alone, the local has filed several contracting out grievances.

On the question “is the industry trying to bust the union?” Brother Ghag says
yes. “That's what they’ve been trying to do for 66 years and this year they are con-
tracting out and spreading fear to create that atmosphere.”

A GROWING BACKLASH AGAINST WEYERHAEUSER

In the Alberni Valley, local union members at Weyerhaeuser’s West Island
Timberlands are now working for Hayes Forest Services. The local negotiated a
turn over of the former Weyco Franklin River bargaining unit to prevent the ero-
sion of the unit by contracting out. Meanwhile the company has laid off its compa-
ny employees at Sproat Lake and has put up road blocks on negotiating with the
local, First Nations or interested union contractors on the transfer of the bargain-

ing unit as a whole.

“Weyerhaeuser is the pacesetter for
contracting out,” says Local 1-85 presi-
dent Monty Mearns. “They want to con-
trol the timber, have their cake and eat
it too and I believe they have a starva-
tion policy toward our membership -
either accept what they offer or
Weyerhaeuser will starve you into sub-
mission.” He adds that there is a grow-
ing backlash against the company that
is getting very serious.

“They (the company) refuse to nego-
tiate with us, they dragged their heels
with First Nations and the IWA over
the future of Sproat Lake, and they are
trying to bury us in contracting out
grievances and arbitrations,” he says.
“And they must wonder why people out
here are beginning to want to kick
them out of our valley altogether!”

“One day Weyerhaeuser is going to
wake up to find that First Nations, the
union and large parts of the public
against them and they are going to face
the equivalency of an eviction notice
from public forest lands,” adds Mearns.
“The time is coming up.”

Prom Ise

COPE

Performance =Continued Operaten
Reduceel Lngurts = Continued Operation
Make Profit = © ontinued Opeotio
“keep doing what youre doing =
Continued Oper ation

Lies L1es LIES Lies

= Local 2171 member at protest
over Weyerhaeuser Canadian White
Pine closure in Vancouver (Dec. ‘01).

in the crosshairs

A look at the FIR guys

Chopping the fallers

As part of its master strategy to con-
tract out Coast logging, Weyerhaeuser
dropped a bombshell on the IWA at the
beginning of negotiations with the for-
est industry in March. On March 18 it
informed company fallers at its Pt.
McNeill divisions they would be gone
from the bargaining unit within a week.
‘They were given two choices: go witha
replacement falling contractor or bump
an existing company logger out of their
job in the non-falling jobs that are left.

This was done despite the fact that the
IWA collective agreement restricts them
from introducing contractors that would
result in the loss of bargaining unit posi-
tions. Going further, Weyco said after a

minimum of two years, it would begin | 3 1
contracting out other phases. ' Aine

Shorty after that, the company pulled = Fallers are on Weyerhaeuser’s
the same type of move with company endangered species list.

fallers at its South Island Timberlands in

Northwest Bay, and Cowichan Divison. Workers with over 20 years seniority as

company fallers have been dropped.

Local 2171 president Darrel Wong says
that the company is using the falling issue
as “a wedge” to further decimate the
coastal membership, phase-by-phase and
that no Weyerhaeuser employee, in the
logging sector will be immune if it suc-
ceeds. “The issue is of paramount impor-
‘tance to our organization,” he says.

An overview of the main forest indus-
try players on the Coast is of particular
interest to IWA members. Forest
Industrial Relations, the bargaining
association for coastal companies, has

four major employers as clients:
Weyerhaeuser Canada, International
- Forest Products

(Interfor)
TimberWest and
Doman Industries.

FIR also has
numerous other
| mid-size and
small companies.

Weyco is an

Steve Rogel American compa-
ny that bought out MacMillan Bloedel in
1999 and is one of the world’s most
profitable forest giants. Company CEO
Steve Rogel called its newly acquired
coastal assets, with nearly 270,000
hectares of private lands on Vancouver
Island, its “crown jewel” — in other
words, its most valuable assets.

Today Weyerhaeuser is the leading
company that is gutting IWA bargaining
units and is lobbying for the export of
logs from both private and public lands.
It closed two profitable coastal operations
in ‘o2, sacking 500 IWA members.

The other leading log export lobbyist is
TimberWest. It is dominated by
American shareholders and is B.C.’s
leading exporter of logs from private
lands. In 2001 it closed its profitable
Cowichan Lumbermill in the southem

Vancouver Island community of Youbou,
keeping its public forest licence, and
sparking a revolt by IWA members.
Some of the remaining mill equipment
was sold toa local contractor and shipped
to produce lumber in Costa Rica.

TimberWest CEO Paul McElligot is a
leading advocate for the privatization of
public lands and the export of logs. The
company controls 3.6 million cubic
meters of annual allowable cut and has
one sawmill in Campbell River.

Interfor was rated as one of the most
profitable companies in 2002 in terms
of return on investment. It's CEO and
chairman Duncan Davies, is the chair-
man of FIR. In January 2002 he said the
collective bargaining process “has
proved incapable of responding to
changing circumstances faced by the
industry.” He moved a five year-old
value-added mill from Fort Langley B.C.
to Washington state in November of last
year to take advantage of cheap labour
and escape tariffs. Mr. Davies says he
wants an element of “market forces” to
determine “contract rates, labour rates
and things of that nature.”

Doman is a B.C. owned and operated
company that does not export logs and
does not want to fight with the IWA over
concessions or move its operations to the
United States or elsewhere. Company
president and CEO Rick Doman has said
that the most important issue is not
reducing labour rates, but resolving
unfair stumpage and the tariff issue.

AUGUST 2003 THE ALLIED WORKER | 11