1
VSTRIKES AND LockouTs

IWA Negotiating Committee statement:

THE DECISION TO ACCEPT back-
to-work legislation in this dispute
was extremely difficult and based on
a number of factors and events. First,
on November 21, 2003, we were
forced out on strike by the heavy-
handed tactics of Forest Industrial
Relations (FIR). There is no doubt
that the industry and its lawyers took
advantage of the ability to discontin-
ue negotiations and impose terms
and conditions of employment. Be
clear, the one-day study session by
some members did not create that
situation, it was only a convenient
excuse for the companies. We believe
that FIR was exploring other options
to force IWA members onto the pick-
et-lines before Christmas, including
simply discontinuing negotiations or
locking out individual operations.
Second, the strike lasted almost a
month and there was no end in sight.
FIR had steadfastly refused to let its
companies recall IWA members
under the old collective agreement.

FIR continued to add additional con-
cessions to its bargaining demands.
The Provincial = Negotiating
Committee was convinced FIR and
some of its members were hell-bent
to starve our membership out.

Third, we believe that this govern-
ment would not hesitate to end the
strike by legislation at some later
date and leave the imposed contract
in place. Our aim was to ensure any
return-to-work was under the old
Coast Master Agreement. The only
other question was when and how
much would our members and fami-
lies have to suffer before a return-to-
work was ordered? The reality is all
of the other alternatives involved
continuing the strike with the very
real possibility of the same legislated
solution rearing its ugly head next
Spring or Summer.

The Provincial Negotiating
Committee did not ask for Bill 99.
What we said was if government was
going to intervene, it should happen

now and it should be under the old
Coast Master Agreement, with the
assistance of a mediator. The [WA
did not support binding mediation.
We did, however, recognize that we
might not like some parts of a legis-
lated return-to-work. At the meeting
with Minister Bruce the PNC took
that position. The majority of the
Coast Locals supported the course of
action taken last weekend.

The PNC is solidly committed to
getting past politics and recognizing
this for what it is: the right decision
for our members in these difficult
circumstances. Now it is time for us
to work hard to ensure we get a set-
tlement through the process estab-
lished with the assistance of respect-
ed mediator Don Munroe.

Adopted unanimously by the IWA
Negotiating Committee, representing
Locals 1-80, 1-85, 2171, 363,
1-3567 and the Council of [WA Locals.

- December 17, 2003

PHOTO COURTESY IWA LOCAL 2693

= IWA Local 2693 members have been on strike against Bowater since August of 2002 in Ignace, Ontario.

Bowater strike continues

Local 2693 members are determined to maintain

walkout for fair collective agreement in Ignace

IN NORTHWESTERN Ontario,
Local 2693 members and their fam-
ilies at the Bowater Inc. sawmill in
Ignace are hunkering down for the
Christmas season and cold winter
months as they continue to resist
their employer’s attempt to contract
out work and implement shifting
schedules at will.

The local union has put out a plea
for financial relief for the strikers to
the Ontario Federation of Labour,
the Thunder Bay and District Labour
Council and to the IWA National
and local unions. It is also collecting
toys to give to 28 children for
Christmas.

“It's been a tough and long
strike,” says IWA Local 2693 presi-
dent Joe Hanlon. “Our members
have been solid on the picket line
and have put up a real fight against
an employer who is determined to
keep the place closed, even after it
has invested $25 million in modern-

izing the mill.” The IWA hit the
bricks in August, 2002 and since
then, there have been some attempts
to get back to the bargaining table
but nothing has materialized.

“This strike is all about a small
crew in a small town up against a
monster-sized employer,” says
Brother Frost, local union financial
secretary and business agent.

He points out that Bowater,
which has about 450 Local 2693
members (both company and con-
tract crews) covered by woodlands
agreements, is chipping good
sawlogs and driving them past the
Ignace mill, for its pulp and paper
complex in Thunder Bay. “There
are a lot of serious wood supply
issues with Bowater,” he says. Local
members haul from woodlands lim-
its near Ignace to Thunder Bay on
round trips that can last 15 hours or
more.

Plant chair Clay Defeo says it’s

also been frustrating for the crew
to watch timber that was designat-
ed for the Ignace mill, go to a non-
union sawmill in Thunder Bay. In
2004, Bowater plans to harvest and
roadside chip the fibre that was to
go to the Igance operation.
Bowater, the largest pulp and
paper company in the world, is one
of the largest in Canada with two
sawmills in Ontario, ten in Quebec,
and one each in the provinces of
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Its Thunder Bay pulp and paper
complex has a newsprint mill and
two kraft paper mills. In north-
western Ontario, it controls about
8 million hectares of forest lands
and has another 24 million in
Quebec and the other provinces.
Please write your cheques to:
IWA Local 2693 - Lakehead Labour
Centre - Rm. 6., 929 Ft. William
St., Thunder Bay, ON P7B 3A6 -
Attention: Bowater Relief Fund

FILE PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA,

= IWA saw filer in 1996 photo.

Produits Forestieres crew
resolves seven month strike
As this issue goes to press, the IWA
Local 1000 announced that the
seven month Produits Forestieres
sawmill strike in Fort Coulonge has
been resolved! IWA Local 1000 pres-
ident Michael McCarter says the mill
has a new owner — Pinexel Inc.
based in Lac St. Jean, Quebec. The
new owner has to build up log sup-

ply, causing at least a temporary
shortage of work for the returning @

crew members, who are being
recalled under a three-year wage
and benefit increase of $2.27 per
hour — with a $1.00 per hour
increase in the first year. “We hope
to build a constructive working rela-
tionship with the new owner Alain
Brunet,” says McCarter. An incredi-
ble feature of the collective agree-
ment is that April 28 (Labour's Day
of Mourning) will be a paid holiday,
a possible first for the Canadian
Labour Movement! “We're back
with a good agreement and a new %
owner that seems to want to work |
with us in a spirit of good faith,”
says plant chair Daniel Dagenais.
“That's a good Christmas gift for
our members who stuck together.”

FILE PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= The crew returned in late Nov. @

Local 324 members retum to
work following lock out

On November 26, locked out IWA
members at the Prairie Forest
Products operation in Neepawa,
Manitoba voted to ratify a three-
year contract after being on the line
for 23 days. The agreement, which
is retroactive to November 1, 2003,
will see two per cent wage increases
each year, improved weekend shift
premiums, better seniority retention
after layoffs, improved vacation
entitlement language, a $100 sign-
ing bonus, and extended health and
welfare coverage during layoffs for
a two month period. Various parts
of the contract language was also
improved. Local business agent
Chris T. Parlow says that the union
was unable to acheive the level of
wage improvements it wanted but
that it was able to get the company
to withdraw language that it thought
would damage seniority provisions
in the new collective agreement.

a | tHe

ALLIED WORKER DECEMBER 2003