) invex

i EASTERN LOCALS GO TO D6 In
early December the former
IWA‘s five Ontario locals met to
continue their transition into the
United Steelworkers District 6
(Ontario/Atlantic Canada)/ 2

@ SETTING AN AGENDA The
Steelworkers-IWA Council has
set an ambitious agenda to
strengthen the union and coun-
cil- affiliated locals/3

i LETTERS PAGE The Allied
Worker welcomes letters from
members across Canada /4

@ OPINIONS IWA Council chair
Norm Rivard writes about
transition issues with the
Steelworkers and Local 1-363
president Rick Wangler writes
on Weyerhaeuser’s extended
shifts and the company’s igno-
rance towards safety /5

i LINKING THE LOCALS Brief bits
and bites of information from
all Steelworker locals affiliated
to the IWA Council / 6-7

Wi STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS Local
1-3567 members on strike
against Weyerhaeuser-owned
Northwoods
Hardwoods in
Delta, B.C. are
determined to
} stay on strike

| to defend their
4 seniority
rights. Other Steelworkers joined

FIVE FORMER IWA local unions in
Ontario met with Steelworkers District 6
(Ontario/Atlantic Canada) director
Wayne Fraser and district representatives
in early December to discuss post-merger
transition issues.

Those former IWA locals are now
Steelworkers Local 1-500 (Hanover), Local
1-700 (Toronto), Local 1-1000 (northcen-
tral Ontario), Local 1-2693 (Thunder Bay)
and Local 1-2995 (Kapuskasing).

“We welcome the former IWA locals
into the Steelworkers. These locals bring a
proud heritage to the Steelworkers,” says
District 6 Director Wayne Fraser. “The
local union officers and staff bring the
Steelworkers much experience and exper-

— tise. There is a lot of
a. work to do to look for
the best way of operat-

gaining, for organiz-
ing, for education and
for political action.”
“We had a very
good meeting and a
productive meeting,”
says Norm Rivard, the Steelworkers -
IWA Council chairperson and assistant to
national union director Ken Neumann.
“There is a great opportunity to put our
enhanced, collective strength together in

Wayne Fraser

PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA.

= Pictured (front) in the foreground are Steelworkers Local 1-2693 members.

Ontario. We also believe that there are
major opportunities to organize in the
forest industry in Atlantic Canada,” adds
Brother Rivard, who points to the recent
organizing success in Nova Scotia, where
Local 1-306 (based in Miramichi, New
Brunswick) organized sawmill worker at
the Deniso Lebel Ltd. operation in
Scotsburn (see story page seventeen).

The former IWA locals are affiliated to
the Steelworkers - IWA Council, which,
among other duties, is charged with coor-
dinating collective bargaining activities,
assisting a supporting members in strike

and lockout situations, and organiz
the unorganized. @

Steelworkers - [WA Council officer
Wilf McIntyre (see article page three)
says there is much work to be done to
grow the council-affiliated locals.

“We need to organize and build
strength in the forest industry and its
related industries,” says Brother
McIntyre. “At the same time our
District 6 locals are diverse entities that
require innovative organizing strategies
for both private and public sector work-
places.”

them to leaflet Weyco's office /8

1B A CONFERENCE TO UNITE In
September the Steelworkers -
IWA Council held its first-ever
conference to unite under the
banner of Canada’s largest pri-
vate sector union and begin to
plan for the battles ahead/ 9-13

i STEELWORKER WOMEN At the
Steelworkers-IWA Council con-
ference, dele-

Strategic
campaign
ramping up

gates wets Steps are being taken
given a report

marking the é .

past year’s to taken on multinational

achievements
of IWA women
and the progress that had been
made through education and
activism in the union / 14

i PUTTING WORKERS FIRST In
October the Steelworkers union
5 launched a cam-

forest giant Weyerhaeuser

AS PART OF THE MERGER discus-
sions between the Steelworkers and the
IWA, the Weyerhaeuser Strategic
Campaign began. The multinational for-
est giant continues with its attacks on

paign to change Steelworkers
Canada’s bank- ‘members, espe-
ruptcy laws. cially on the
pace mem- Coast of B.C. The
| bers went to company is con-
Parliament Hill me

certing an attack
by contracting
out jobs tradi-
tionally done by
company crews

and is pushing to

to lobby the nation’s MP's on the
increasingly important issue /15

i BUILDING A STRONGER UNION
Former national IWA officer
Wilf Mcintyre is taking on the

key job coordinating organizing Steve Hunt implement stan-
in the IWA Council /17 dard 12-hour
shifts for loggers, thereby reducing safe-
r cnce a ty standards. A Weyerhaeuser official told
International union workers that there are no danger-
Steelworkers ous jobs in the logging sector — but the
president Leo forest sector kills between 20-30 workers

1 Gerard origi- a year. it:
- nates from On top of that, Steelworkers District 3
north Ontario mining country /24 director Steve Hunt notes that despite

= Billboards are being developed to inform the public about Weyco’s practices.

promises to invest in the province, that
investment is not taking place.

Over two years ago, Weyco joined
Interfor and TimberWest to promise
investment for B.C. communities if they
could get requested changes to provincial
forest policy and more favourable agree-
ments with labour.

In December of 2003 the provincial
government forced striking IWA mem-
bers back to work on the Coast. The
result was binding arbitration that led to
the imposition of longer shifts, reduced
travel and overtime pay and additional
contracting out.

To ramp up the Weyerhaeuser
Strategic Campaign, the Steelworkers
have held regional education sessions in
Kelowna (Local 1-423 and 1-417),
Nanaimo (Locals 1-80, 1-85, 1-363 and 1-
2171), Edmonton (Local 1-207), Prince
Alberta (Local 1-184) and Langley, B.C.
(Local 1-3567) to discuss the campaign
and tour various operations.

From December 5-7, Steelworker
members from across Canada took part
in a “Building Power” course at the
District 3 office in Burnaby (see page twen-
ty-one) to give local union activists impor-

tant tools to communicate with the mem-

bership at grass roots level and ae:
company on various fronts. Duri
week, the members joined striking
Northwest Hardwoods members to
leaflet, Weyco’s downtown Vancouver
office (see page eight). The workers are
continuing their leafleting campaign.
nearly 2005, the union will be running J
billboards on the “Weyerhaeuser Way” in.
strategic locations on the Coast (see sample
image above). On the issue of log exports
alone, the company exported 1.2 million E
cubic meters of logs from the BC coast in
2003, while it racked up record profits.
Other initiatives in early 2005 include
meetings with coastal mayors and mem-
bers of the provincial legislature e :
Weyerhaeuser-related issues.
Ata BC Federation of Labour convention
rally on December 1, Brother Hunt said
for Weyerhaeuser to live up to its commit:
ment to communities. “We need people all
over B.C. to let this company know we don't
do business this way here,” said Brother Hunt
During the week of the Fed convention, dele
gates endorsed an emergency resolution
porting the Steelworkers’ campaign.

21, ED.

THE ALLIED WORKER DECEMBER

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