PHOTOS BY NORMAN GARCIA

= Pictured during a meeting at the IWA’s national office in Burnaby were USWA International president Leo Gerard (centre, back to camera) and members of
the IWA’s merger negotiating committee. Clockwise, from front left, are IWA national president Norm Rivard, national first vice president Wilf Mcintyre,
national staffer John Mountain, Local 1-405 president Bob Matters, Local 2171 president Darrel Wong, Local 1000 president Mike McCarter, Local 1-3567
president Sonny Ghag, Local 2693 president Joe Hanlon, Local 1-184 president Paul Hallen and national secretary-treasurer David Tones.

Joining with

Steel to form

The IWA and Steelworkers are heading into an historical period
as two great industrial unions move to combine forces to protect and
organize workers in North America and take on global corporations

approval of the merger agreement with the Steelworkers on June 21, all
IWA’ers will be voting on joining with United Steelworkers of America
(USWA) to form the largest and most powerful private sector union in all
of Canada. The vote starts on July 12. Final results are to be in by August

Across North America, the Steelworkers woulcl grow to more than 650,000
strong, making IWA Canada members part of an organization with an unprece-
dented array of resources and services for its membership (see articles pages one,
two, and President’s message on page three).

“The time is now to merge with the Steelworkers,” says [WA Canada national
president Norman Rivard. “We have to be part of a union that will give us more
clout at the bargaining table and more clout with government. We have to organize
and grow or risk a future where ever-increasingly powerful multinational corpora-
tions will be out to destroy the IWA on its own.”

Steelworkers International President Leo Gerard, who originates from Local
6500 in Sudbury (Inco Nickel) says that Canadian Steelworkers have always played
a large role in the International union (the International president has been a
Canadian for all but seven of the last 25 years) and that Canadian Steel districts and
locals run their affairs in a completely autonomous way.

Brother Gerard says the Steelworkers strongly believe in the continued organiz-
ing and strengthening of workers in traditional resources sectors (i.e. forest prod-
ucts, mining, steel, rubber, glass and aluminum) to maintain a union density that
will allow for the strong collective agreeements

MEMBERS ACROSS CANADA ate about
to cast one of the most important ballots they have
ever cast. Following National Executive Board’s

The Steelworkers also bill themselves as
“Everybody's Union,” underscoring their com-
mitment, much like the IWA’s, to organize all
kinds of workers in the Canadian economy.

Says Brother Gerard: “If you don’t find
places to organize as the economy is being
restructured and find opportunities to inject
yourself into the new economy, then you sim-
ply are living on the edge of death...”

Since 1998, the Steelworkers have brought
in over 100,000 new members. They spend
over $30 million a year on organizing.

With the addition of IWA Canada, forest
sector workers will become the Steelworkers’
largest resources sector in the country — larger that mining or steel itself.

“As a resource-based private sector union, we share many of the same values,”
says Brother Rivard. “Those values include serving our members’ and families’
needs and building strength in communities and taking political action to defend
our collective interests. Steel’s programs like education, organizing, collective bar-
gaining, legal assistance and the ability to run strategic campaigns against large
employers, will prove invaluable to us in the future.”

At the first national staff conference to discuss the merger in March (see pictures
page ten and eleven) Brother Gerard outlined the effectiveness of major strategic
campaigns in taking on such issues as beating back punishing U.S. tariffs against
Canadian steel imports and taking on corporate giants including U.S. Steel,

Bridgestone/Firestone, Pittsburgh Steel and the Northrup Grumann shipyards in —

Newport News, Virginia, a right-to-work state.
With the growth of powerful multinational corporations in the forest industry,
such as Weyerhaueser, Bowater and Louisiana Pacific, the [WA will be at risk in the

future unless it has the strength to strike back.
Said Brother Gerard: “It doesn’t matter whether you are in the United States or
in Canada, you need to have a comprehensive strategy to bring these employers to

12 | THE ALLIED WORKER JUNE 2004

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