Vancouver Island member killed in log hauling accident

AN EERIE SILENCE swept the IWA’s
national convention in Kelowna on
September 23, when national president
Dave Haggard informed delegates that
the union just received word there had
: a terrible tragedy in Port Alberni

1-85. That afternoon, at about the
same time the national safety report was
being read —a report which proudly stat-
ed that Local 1-85 had not had a fatality
since the last convention — union mem-
ber Percy Forbes was killed when his
loaded logging truck went out of control.
Brother Haggard called the convention

to adjournment
and national safety
director Ron
Corbeil and Local
1-85 safety director
George Rogers
went to Port
Alberni with sub-
local safety rep
Bruce Stelmaker
to investigate what happened. The
RCMP, Coroner, WCB and Hayes Forest
Services investigated the day of the acci-
dent. Apparently Brother Forbes’ truck

Percy Forbes

went out of control down a grade after
the brakes had been checked. In the
process of trying to regain control, he put
the truck into a ditch against a cut bank.
Binders broke, the bunk strap broke and
the back bunk broke loose from the trail-
er, said Brother Rogers.

Brother Forbes was either ejected
from the cab or jumped out to escape the
runaway truck. He was struck by the load
as it fanned out from the trailer, which
had about 113 cubic meters of mostly
green hemlock from rightaway falling.
The cab plunged over a bank where it

came to rest about 80 feet below. Prior
to the incident, Forbes’ truck had been
helped by another around a switchback
corner with a 26% grade. The brakes
held at that point. On September 27, an
overflow crowd, including national presi-
dent Dave Haggard, attended a service at
the Alberni Secondary School. A caval-
cade from a vintage auto club went to the
union hall in honour of Percy who was an
old car buff. Brother Forbes is survived
by his wife Sandy and three children;
Blain, Braden and Talea; five sisters, a
brother and numerous nieces and

A very tough year
® for B.C. negotiations

Coastal membership forced to strike
against concessions while
Interior votes on pattern agreements

AS THIS ISSUE OF The Allied Worker
goes to press, the IWA is on strike on
the Coast of B.C. over Forest Industrial
Relation’s attempt, upheld by a
November 21 Labour Relations Board
decision, to unilaterally impose terms
and conditions of employment on
union members. On November 21,
union members walked off the job, as
strike action escalated on the coast.

As strike was called, IWA National
Secretary-Treasurer David Tones
expressed disappointment at the LRB
ruling adding that the union believe the
employer “should and must not have
the right to unilaterally impose terms

.d conditions on our members.”

‘We can not allow our members to
be at risk over FIR’s actions or the
LRB’s decision,” said Tones, who added
the solution lies at the bargaining table.

On November 17, the industry
claimed that negotiations had broken
off and tried to impose the concession-
ridden agreement it presented on
November 11 — to cut travel time and
overtime, cap benefit programs, sched-
ule shifts as it pleases, eliminate over-
time and contract out logging opera-
tions as freely as it wants to. Interfor’s
attempt to impose terms and condi-
tions of work, first in Local 1-3567,

used IWA members to hit the bricks.

1R’s proposed contributions to the
TWA-Forest Industry Pension plan do
not meet the IWA’s expectations and
paying 2 25 cents per hour increase in
two of the three years is out of step with
the basic IWA pattern agreement estab-
lished in the B.C. Interior, where the
union has negotiated both ratified and
tentative agreements, providing wage
jncreases of 1 per cent and including
bonus payments based on return on
capital employed.

In the Interior both sides have negoti-
ated employer and employee contribu-

tions to fix up the pension plan in order
to prevent a cut in benefits and have
agreed to provide the IWA the majority
of pension plan trustees in the future —

“THIS YEAR HAS BEEN A
YEAR LIKE NO OTHER WHEN
IT COMES TO NEGOTIATING
AGREEMENTS IN ALL PARTS
OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.”

- DAVE HAGGARD
PRESIDENT, IWA CANADA
something that FIR does not agree with.

A tentative agreement was reached
with southern Interior lumber compa-
nies, represented by the Interior Forest
Labour Relations Association, on
October 1, replacing the tentative con-

tract was turned down in July. It includ-
ed changes to alternative shifting lan-

PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= National IWA president Dave Haggard fields media questions during a one

day walkout on November 6.

guage, pension contributions by
employers and new wording on the
presence of union representatives at
disciplinary meetings.

But it was rejected once again by
Local 1-423 members by November 21.

On October 30, memorandums of
agreements were reached with north-
ern B.C. lumber producers. Canfor,
Weldwood Canada and the Council on
Northern Interior Forest Employment
Relations, settled with IWA Locals 1-
424 and 1-425 on agreements covering
some 6,000 members. Voting should
be concluded soon.

“This year has been a year like no
other when it comes to negotiating
agreements in all parts of B.C.,” says
IWA National President Dave Haggard,
the chairman of the union’s provincial
negotiating committee. “We've also

ALBERTA MEMBERS HIT BY WEYCO CLOSURE

Weyerhaeuser is not only taking on IWA.
members in B.C. Coastal negotiations — it
intends to throw them out of work in
Grande Cache, Alberta. On November 6
the company gave Local 1-207 same-day
notice that it intends
to pull the plug on its
Grande Cache
sawmill on February
8, 2004, tossing 130
IWA members onto
the bread lines.
Thirty-five salaried
jobs and spin-off
employment will also
be affected, devastating a rural communi-
ty which has recently suffered the closure
of the Smoky River Coal Mine.

__ The local union suspects that Weyco will

Mike Pisak

ship logs intended for Grande Cache to
other mills and has demanded the provin-
cial government take back the timber
supply and aggressively look for potential
operators that are prepared to provide
jobs in Grande Cache.

Local president Mike Pisak says that prof-
its and productivity were pointing
upwards and that the announcement was
“shocking.” He says that the Grande
Cache crew and their families would have
to leave town if the closure goes ahead.

National IWA president Dave Haggard
questions how hard Weyco looked for a
new buyer and that “governments in this
country have obligations to the communi-
ties and citizens to ensure that jobs are
created from the harvest of our forests.”

seen agreements accepted by our mem-
bers in some areas and turned down in
others. It’s been especially. difficult on
the Coast where FIR has spent months
dragging its feet and trying to screw us
around at the Labour Relations Board
(also see story opposite page) and in the
media,” adds the union president.
“These guys aren’t acting in a way that
is conducive to a settlement. But despite
their underhanded tactics, we are going
to make our best effort to find a collec-
tive agreement that works for the
coastal industry.” A meeting was sched-
uled with FIR on November 25. The
union has been urging the industry to
seriously address cost issues and forget
about trying to “rip pages out of our col-
lective agreement” says Haggard.

“With our final offer we offered the
industry the right to implement alter-
nate shifts to deal with the major cost
gaps facing the Coastal industry,” adds
Haggard. “We proposed that the indus-
try move ahead to remedy the under-
utilization of labour and capital by
working at the operational level, with
our membership, to address efficiency
and productivity issues.”

The union’s final offer called for a
moratorium on contracting out - a
major issue facing the IWA member-
ship in the logging sector — and pro-
posed a “restructuring period” to expire
in June, 2004. Companies and local
unions would be given time to imple-
ment alternate and flexible work sched-
ules. At the end of the restructuring
period, the union proposed that either
side be able to cancel the contract and
restart collective bargaining.

The union has been in a legal strike
position since September 25.

NOVEMBER 2003 THE ALLIED WORKER | 3