FIR is out to set us back fifty years on the Coast FOREST INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (FIR) tried. toimplementa contract thatremoves many of the hard-won contractual rights of work ers. They say industry does not have to pay for these in other jurisdictions. Does that that we are to be in a race to the bot- with workers in these other places? If the self-serving CEO’s of FIR were as concemed about workers as they advertise on TV, then they would be going into other jurisdictions to raise standards — not fix their mistakes on workers’ backs here. OPINION BY CARL CHESTER FIR demands the right to implement any shift they want without overtime on — weekends. Unions fought for weekends so Qe 290 that most people that many think employers gave us the weekend out of the Kindness of their hearts. We won time and _ one half for Saturday work in 1950. Our union fought for the rights of seniority so thatcompanies can’t use casual _ employees whenever they choose to avoid paying overtime. FIR demands the ability to have casual employees at their call without any seniority rights. The union fought for Paid Holidays in THIS STRIKE WENT TO THE HEART OF WHAT WE HAVE FOUGHT FOR OVER THE MANY YEARS the 1950s. FIR demands that we accept to Employment Standards, not what the union negotiated. ‘Travel Time was fought for and won in — 1955 — something FIR doesn't want to pay. Employees are already traveling for free. ‘Camps have closed and marshalling points have not changed. Where I work the bunk | house has just dosed. If I wantto live in a half decent town and continue to work, I will be traveling about 6 hoursa day on my own hook. Retum trip of hours driving, one and a half on the it and up to two hours from the mar- shalling point, all for 8-9 hours of paid work. FIR thinks thatI should putina 1415 hour day on a 10 and 5 shift with no over- time pay for Sunday work, and no overtime for workover 8 hours, because ofaveraging i hours. We fought for and won hiring prefer- ence in 1959 and FIR says ithas to go. They employees strike in 1986 was important you should Jmow that FIR is demanding the right to outany and all of the work that you your crew do. This strike was over more issues to the heart of pecient _ which was established by the IWA in 1950. It wants to force many what we have all fought for over the many years. We muststand in solidarity or we will Jose everything that our Brothers and Sisters have fought and did for. Carl Chester is a Local 2171 logger and former busi- ness agent, He works at Edward BAssociates, Dinan ay Division in the Queen Charlotte Islands. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Our coastal members deserve a fair agreement Intervention of a mediator is only way to get the industry back to the table BY DAVE HAGGARD AS WE APPROACH THE HOLIDAY SEASON IWA Canada members on the Coast of British Columbia are head- ing back to work as they are recalled by their employers. About 10,000 members in Locals 1-80, 1-85, 2171, 363 and 1- 3567 were forced to go on strike on November 21 — provoked by a B.C. Labour Relations Board decision that said Forest Industrial Relations, the bargaining association for the coastal industry, had the right to unilaterally impose terms and conditions of employment on IWA members. We went on strike for nearly four weeks and it became apparent that both sides were dug in for a dispute with no end in sight. Your union and the industry agreed that we need changes in the coastal forest industry but we have been unable to get there at the bargaining table. Both the industry and the union requested the assistance of the government to hopefully get a mediated settlement. Your union negotiating committee will be doing its best to produce a negotiated settlement through mediation and take it to the membership for a vote. If that does not hap- pen, mediator Don Munroe could impose a binding settle- ment on both parties. It has been an ugly set of negotiations, with the industry pulling off a number of unprecedented moves to provoke the strike. Prior to the strike, FIR chairman Duncan Davies used his own company, International Forest Products, as an early testing ground to force those concessionary terms and conditions. Interfor started their shenanigans at the Hammond Cedar mill in Maple Ridge and other company operations in Local 1-3567. Those crews shut it down immediately. We are sure that FIR will maintain, through the binding mediation process, a whole list of concessions from IWA mem- bers: from trying to contract and sub-conract out logging, to unilaterally running mills on any shift they want for whatever period they want, to eliminating preferential hiring, eliminat- ing travel time in the logging sector, reducing rates of vacation pay for senior workers, and a whole list of other rollbacks. FIR leader companies are the ones that put us on strike. They knew very well when Interfor led the attack that their actions would provoke a walkout. They knew their attempted actions would be unacceptable. In August we won a Labour Relations Board decision to get them to the bargaining table. When they did appear, they put more concessions on the table. All along, FIR has insisted on the right to demand more concessions from the IWA in the future. There’s no way they are bargaining in good faith at all. When we met with FIR on December 5, we offered the industry up-front solutions to provide over $100 million a year in cost savings. Meanwhile they squak about the IWA try- ing to get an “Interior agreement” they say would add $140 million, over six years, to labour costs. Their numbers just don’t add up!! All of these issues will go to mediation to be sorted out with the help of Mr. Munroe. During our strike local union members were strong and united in their actions when the IWA made the call. We are proud of the united actions that they took. All over the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, mainland coast, Vancouver Island, central and northern coast and Queen Charlotte Islands, we received support from other unions and commu- nity members. The labour movement committed to lend us financial resources, led by a no-strings attached $50,000 donation to our members from the Canadian Auto Workers. We thank our members for taking united action and ask for unity during the mediation process. EDITORIAL They are trying to roll back the clock Employers on the coast of B.C. are attempting to gut cut the IWA’s collective agreement in the name of “modernization” ONE COULD ALMOST PICTURE amused faces at Forest Industrial Relations as the employer association fashioned CEO Terry Linekar’s November 19 statement that the terms and conditions, it was attempting to ram down IWA members’ throats, were a “reassurance” to its employees that it is “indeed rebuilding this industry with modernized labour practices.” For the corporations that pull the strings at FIR, “modernized ' labour practices” mean concessions from IWA members. Just by looking at FIR’s demands on hours of work, contracting out, travel time for loggers, preferential hiring and pensions alone, one can see that FIR is clearly out to rip pages from its collective agreement with IWA coast locals, FIR wants the unilateral right to implement the shifts it pleas- es, eliminating overtime for weekend work, exceeding 40 hours, IWA’ers to work longer hours at the will of their employer, with overtime paid only after a 40 hour “averaging period” schedule, completely determined by the boss, would be exceeded. FIR wants the unfettered right to contract out company jobs and then sub-divide those jobs, phase-by-phase. The IWA bat- tled the industry for gains in 1972 and went on strike for 4-1/2 months in 1986 to counteract contracting out. Now the indus- try wants to divide and conquer union loggers as they piece off forest licenses under new legislation introduced by the Campbell Liberals, making the con- tracting out issue even more serious. FIR wants to eliminate travel time for loggers, paying drivers only at a reduced rate. The IWA established travel time in 1955 and improved it in later years. Combined with longer work days of 10- 12 hours, forced by the employer, a log- ger who is 1-1/2 hours from a work site, for instance, would be forced to travel 15 hours per week, based on just a five day week, for free and be gone for (including COAST. MASTER AGREEMENT +2000 - 2003 - REVISED - const neano baran COLUSA ecto dune 15 2859 ONE CAN SEE THAT a half hour lunch) for 13-1/2 - 15-1/2 FORESTINDUSTRIAL = tours a day. What kind of life does FIR RELATIONSISCLEARLY want for loggers? And what level of alert- PAGES ness, necessary for safety, would result? ss On the issue of preferential hiring, FROMITSCOLLECTIVE which was first established by the IWA AGREEMENT WITHIWA in 1959, FIR is out to gut the clause com- COAST LOCALS pletely as it members continue to close operations, assisted by Liberal forest pol- icy. And on pensions, it comes up way short, while it tries to cap holiday pay near 1968 levels. In short — and there’s much more — FIR is out to drive IWA members backwards. DECEMBER 2003 THE ALLIED WORKER 4 5