FILE PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= Alll forest workers will be hit hard by the elimination of standard overtime provisions in the binding agreement, handed down in May by Don Munroe.

Locals prepare for changes

USWA Coast locals have been going back to work with high lumber prices
in play. Beginning in mid-September they expect to be affected by
provisions of the Coast Master agreement handed down in May.

Gee
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ed work hours imposed on them.

For Local 1-80 president Bill Routley, TimberWest’s demand to impose four 11.7
hour back-to-back shifts on loggers is ridiculous. “We don’t agree with the com-
pany’s attempt to do this,” he says. “When you add all the hours that a worker has
to work, plus getting to and from work, it’s just too much. And our people can’t
just turn the key off and fall to sleep at night and get up the next day refreshed and
ready to go to work. It’s pushing the boundaries on safety.”

In the southern Vancouver Island local, all logging crews have been back dur-
ing the past summer, weather permitting. “Our guys are already working alterna-
tive shifts in the bush that they can agree upon. Whatever the company proposes,
there has to be no loss in work year for the members.” The company has said they
have the right to contract out part of a division, on a stump-to-dump basis, and
award the remaining section to contractors — something the union says would be
a violation of the deal imposed by mediator Don Munro.

Local 1-80 is hearing that there are alternative schedule changes coming at the
Weyerhaeuser Chemainus sawmill and in its bush operations in Nanaimo Lakes
and Northwest Bay, under the binding collective agreement. “Our local has, with
other locals, taken the position that all logging is safety-sensitive and nothing
should be scheduled for more than 10 hours per day. There is a growing list of
issues and problems with the binding settlement. We've asked for meeting with

, FAR SOME COAST LOCAL UNIONS have
& | negotiated alternate shift arrangements before September
on 15, 2004 when the IWA-FIR Coast Master Agreement says

that employers will be able to impose shifts. Just what will
happen after that date remains to be seen. Locals are also expressing seri-
ous concerns about worker fatigue and safety, if some crews have extend-

FIR, TimberWest and mediator Don Munroe
soon.” Another issue that the local is up against
is some employers treating travel time and ser-
vice time as hours worked, which would result
in the shortening of the work year.

In Local 1-85, president Monty Meams also
says that logging operations and mills have been
going full-out, with the exception of
Weyerhaeuser’s Sproat Lake logging division
and Mars Logging (a Bill 13 contractor), where
the local is confronted with numerous contrac-
ing out and timber clawback issues and has filed
grievances that are in the process of arbitration.

In other bush operations, the local has heard nothing yet from Weyerhaeuser,
Interfor or Western Forest Products’ when it comes to contracting out. “We're
going to hold this industry’s feet to the fire in order to keep our crews together as
stump-to-dump operations and will continue to take them on when they try to break
up logging operations into phases,” says Brother Mearns. In 2003 the local negoti-
ated the handover of the Weyco Franklin River division from the company to Hayes
Forest Services, keeping the crew and the collective agreement intact. “We don’t
need any goofy shifts in our local that comprimise the safety of our loggers,” says
Brother Mearns. “We have made that point repeatedly.”

The local has negotiated three 12 hour shifts at the Weyerhaeuser Somass Cedar
mill in Port Alberni, which pays workers 40 hours. There are four crews working
morning shifts and afternoon/evening shifts. Overtime will be paid on Sundays to

. balance out the average of 40 hours.

Brother Mearns says the local expects to see alternative shifts put on the table very
soon at the Weyco Alberni Pacific Division sawmill in town. Elsewhere, at the
Coulson Millworks reman operation in town, the union membership is working on
a four to hour shift basis, in a negotiated agreement that appears to be working
well.

Local 1-363 president Rick Wangler says the local has tried to clarify alternate

10 | THE ALLIED WORKER SEPTEMBER 2004
, DT beet tee as ;

Br i a eee