Doman crews rallied to support Coast strikers with special assessment IN A STRONG SHOW of solidarity for their striking union Brothers and Sisters, IWA members at Doman Industries, Doman-Western and Western Forest Products operations on the Coast overwhelmingly sup- ported paying a special $20 per day per member assessment (maximum @r- per pay period) into a fund to help other striking union members. Doman’s operations, which are on the brink of financial disaster, were not struck as the company intended to bargain a separate deal with the IWA. However, FIR was “dragging Doman and other smaller companies down” said national IWA president Daye Haggard, chair of the union’s negotiating committee. “The big three - Interfor, TimberWest and Weyerhaeuser — are like vultures on a limb, trying to force Doman and other smaller companies to go broke so they can pick up the bones,” said Brother Haggard during the strike. Local 1-80 president Bill Routley, THE ALLIED whose local has some 500 Doman workers, said the support of the assessment shows that crews were “digging deep” and understand the collective struggle they are in to defend a B.C.-based company from the powerful interests of the big three. The proceeds of the assessment were collected through the company’s payroll and given to the IWA for distri- bution to picketers in all coast locals. Local 2171 president Darrel Wong, whose local represents workers for Doman and affiliated operations in Vancouver, on Vancouver Island, the coast and QCI, said the approval of the assessment showed the “strong link between IWA members and an under- standing of the issues at hand.” Monty Mearns, president of Local 1- 85, with over 500 members employed by Doman and affiliated contractor crews, said that although most crews were on layoff, the local thanks mem- bers who have chipped into the fund. VOL.68 NO.5 DECEMBER 2003 NEW UNION MEMBERS e PAGE 9 PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA = On the picket line at Interfor’s Western Whitewood sawmill were IWA Local 1-3567 members, among the first to strike in November when the company tried to impose terms and conditions. * Legislated back to work IWA Coast locals are headed back to the table with the assistance of a mediator as union hopes to avoid binding settlement members on the British Columbia Coast trickled back to work in the Iw My, scond half of December following the introduc- tion of legistlation by the Liberal government to (4 end a nearly four week strike. About 10,000 union members from five local unions had been dug in for a long and bitter dispute. Workers returned under the 2000-2003 IWA-FIR collec- tive agreement. Both Forest Industrial Relations and the IWA Coast locals requested government assistance in getting back to the bargaining table when they met with Labour Minister Graham Bruce on December 9. Four days later, Premier Gordon Campbell joined with FIR chairman Duncan Davies and IWA National President Dave Haggard to announce that both sides would accept being leg- islated back to work. The legislation allows for a mediated settlement prior to May 31, 2004, with the assistance of vet- eran mediator Don Munroe. If the parties are unable to reach a settlement, Mr. Munroe has the right to impose terms of the collective agreement. “We're going to be working hard to negotiate a mediated settlement,” said Brother Haggard. “This is the lesser of many evils. We're not com- fortable with the idea of a binding settlement but we think this industry does not have the ability to negotiate without third party involvement.” NEWS FROM THE INDUSTRIAL, WOOD AND ALLIED WORKERS OF CAN PROPOSED SETTLEMENT A BAD ONE FOR PARTIES SAYS IWA PRESIDENT HAGGARD New softwood ‘agreement’ is a big mistake THE CANADA - U.S. SOFTWOOD lumber dis- pute took an unfortunate twist on December 7, when it was announced that negotiators from both nations were looking at a tentative agreement. The proposed agreement would cap all softwood lum- ber exports at 31.5 per cent of the U.S. market and then nail exporters with an incredible $200 per thousand board feet tariff on shipments over that amount. IWA national president Dave Haggard urged both the feds and the provinces to “think about the future implications for workers, companies and communities and question how such a cap would allow companies in Canada to produce more advanced wood products, reduce log exports or find new markets.” “The only growth in the Canadian industry under this quota agreement will be in companies gobbling each other up,” he said, meaning fewer jobs for Canadians and less innovation. As a supporter of a bilateral trade agreement in lumber with the United States, the WA supports a . panel of industry, union and governments officials working together to expand North American lum- ber trade in international markets. This would reduce the country’s dependency on the U.S. Brother Haggard said that quotas allocated under any deal should be used to stop the export of raw logs and increase the volume of higher value forest products. He suggests that this could be done by cutting quotas for a firm by at least the amount of raw logs they export. “If this lousy deal ever becomes a done deal, we have to turn it into our advantage over the long- term,” he said. “We have to reduce raw log exports, ship higher value products to the U.S. with what- ever quota we might have and diligently look for new markets.” Haggard expressed the union’s concern that quota may once again be applied unfairly and discriminat- ingly, creating “have and have-not companies.”