: Weyerhaeuser Ignores safety on longer shiftwork ON OCTOBER 15, 2004 Weyerhaeuser informed us it was going to implement a shift in the company’s North Island Woodlands division that requires our members, their employees, to be on the for a minimum of 12 hours per day. The new govemment-imposed col- lective agreement handed down in May of this year allows the company to impose alternate shifts. The company was asked if they had considered the agreement's clause which says "in log- = OPINION BY RICK WANGLER ging the maximum scheduled daily hours of work for physically demanding or erous occupations will be 10 ; e company had the audacity to tell us that they are not aware of any dan- gerous jobs, This answer was given when we see between 20 and 30 work- ers being killed in the forest industry every year. This answer was given when recently we hear of a truck accident caused by an operator falling asleep at the wheel, when a young man working for a Weyerhaeuser contractor recently lost a leg, when over the last several years there have been more than 20 log- ging truck rollovers in our local. These are accidents that have happened in operations managed by Weyerhaeuser. There are many other serious accidents happening out there: equipment rollovers, motor vehicle accidents, cuts, sprains, strains etc. Today, because Weyerhaeuser wants to avoid paying the workers what they deserve under the new collective agreement, they say there are no dangerous jobs in the forest sector. These companies like to compare log- gers to other industries for hours of work. The facts speak for themselves; Logging is one of the most dangerous industries in the world, it is not the same as other industries. Travel will be on top of the 12- hour day in many cases. This will lead to over 16 hour days, door-to-door for many . Fatigue will be a factor. Or; Weyerhaeuser says it is not aware of any dangerous jobs in logging. At the same time, the company recently went to arbitration to enable them to implement drug testing at their work- sites. They argued that “all jobs in the forest industry are safety sensitive.” CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE Working hard for a smooth transition into the Steelworkers Former IWA locals are becoming vital parts of Steelworker regions in Canada as the IWA Council continues its work BY NORM RIVARD MUCH HAS HAPPENED since the last issue of The Allied Worker. In September we had our first-ever conference of the Steelworkers - IWA Council. You will read about the conference’s highlights in this newspaper. At the conference it was apparent that the membership and local union officers and staff want to make the merger between the Steelworkers and the IWA a big success. Since the conference we have been working hard to ensure a smooth transition into the Steelworkers. The conference provided delegates with an overall picture on which services are offered within our new union to allow us to ful- fill the key areas of responsibility outlined by the merger agreement voted on by the membership. Those include collective bargaining, organizing, legislative and political action and the area of education and membership development. At the conference, various presen- tations were made by Steelworker officers and staff on these and other areas. To help in the transition, an IWA Council Steering Committee, consisting of the former IWA Canada national leadership, International President Leo Gerard, Canadian Director Ken Neumann, Region 3 Director Steve Hunt, and Region 6 Director Wayne Fraser will continue to meet with local unions to move for- ward with commitments outlined in the merger agreement. In the area of collective bargaining, the IWA Council is working on a national bargaining agenda in the forest sector. We are plan- ning to identify and target employers for strategic campaigns to support organizing, contract enforcement and collective bargain- ing; and coordinate bargaining efforts by company, industry and/or region. This will be more important in the months and years ahead as, for instance, Canfor, Weyerhaeuser and West Fraser represent half our membership in the sector in Canada. Planning is underway for a strategic campaign to take on Weyerhaeuser. There have been meetings with the membership in various parts of Canada and we are building ties with PACE, to expand the strategic campaign across Weyco operations in North America. A full-time coordinator has been hired to start to take action on the Coast of B.C. where the company is hitting our mem- bership the hardest and activists are being trained by the union. On the legislative and political action front, the issue of the soft- wood lumber battle with the U.S. and building support for the B.C. NDP prior to and up to the May, 2005 provincial election, are front and center, along with joining a national Steelworker campaign to change Canada’s bankruptcy laws to protect workers. As Steelworkers we will continue the IWA’s work of playing a leading role in promoting “joint labour principles” in both Canada and the U.S. in our attempt to resolve the softwood dispute. We are also lobbying strongly on the issue that any returned duties to the Canadian forest industry must be invested in the workforce, pro- duction facilities and communities. On the issue of organizing, the Steelworkers have given a high priority to organizing within IWA Council-affiliated local unions. Council officer Wilf McIntyre has been put in charge of organizing within former IWA local unions, right across Canada (see article pages three and fifteen). Current and potential organizer teams will be assembled for campaigns targeting forest sector employers. Health and Safety issues will be given a high priority within the Council, sustaining an emphasis on reducing accidents in the most dangerous of all sectors — the forest industry. Efforts to bump up membership development through the training of instructors and more education is taking place. We are also gearing up our communications capacity within the Steelworkers as a whole and for the Council-affiliated locals. As former IWA locals we are committed to fully-integrating into the Steelworkers’ structure. By doing so we will not become a union within a union, but an integral part of a dynamic union that is able to coordinate effective programs locally, nationally and inter- nationally. We thank all our locals for their continued support! Co-workers, families, children and / friends of the thousands of workers that have been killed and maimed while working in the forest industry know log- ging is dangerous. Weyerhaeuser is one | of the largest companies in the Industry, worldwide, and it knows very well the dangers that are inherent to the logging justry. To bury their heads and pre- @' logging is not a dangerous industry is both disrespectful and irresponsible. Farly next year Steelworker local unions will hold a special conference with active Weyco safety committee members to deal with alternate shifts and safety issues. This conference can not be held soon enough! Rick Wangler is the president of the United steelworkers of America Local 1-363, based in Courtenay, B.C. EDITORIAL Campbell’s in cahoots with Weyerhaeuser The Gordon Campbell Liberals are working hand in glove with Weyco in an attempt to destroy what has taken the union generations to build OUR UNION IS FIGHTING BACK against Weyerhaeuser and is fighting back against the BC Liberals — because Gordon Campbell is working hand in glove with Weyerhaeuser in an attempt to destroy what has taken the union generations to build. Let's look at what the Liberals have done to help Weyerhaeuser abandon communities and workers, cut jobs, contract out and export raw logs. They have changed forest policies to sever the tie between har- vesting timber and maintaining jobs in forest-dependent com- munities. Wood no longer has to provide processing jobs in man- ufacturing facilities in those communities. Campbell is allowing the major companies to sub-divide and chop up forest licenses and sell them offas if it were their own pri- vate property — like poker chips — without any regards, whatsoev- er, to workers and community stability. The Liberals forced striking coastal loggers and millworkers back to work in December of 2003. The result of the imposed leg- islation is that our members are being forced to work longer hours at reduced pay and still face expanded contracting out. Campbell has gutted rules restricting raw log exports. Weyerhaeuser exported an astonishing 1.2 million cubic meters in 2003. On much of the crown wood they paid only a dollar a cubic meter export tax. Today they are free to export from crown land if they pay a very low export tax. Campbell is allowing and actively pro- moting an unprecedented amalgama- tion of the forest industry. Under Campbell, Canfor has taken over Slocan, Riverside took over Lignum; now Riverside is being taken over by Tolko; and West Fraser is in the steps of taking over Weldwood. The results will be mill closures, more logs on our public high- ways, on a 24/7 basis, and more com- munity devastation. let's not be mistaken — Gordon OUR UNION IS Campbell Ae ne ipbell expects just a few big corpora- FIGHTING BACK tions will run the forest industry — the AGAINST THE same companies that will bankroll his CAMPBELL next election campaign. That’s why we are putting together campaigns to take on GOVERNMENT AND Weyerhaeuser and get rid of Campbell WEYERHAEUSER AT and the Liberals. We are ramping up a THE SAME TIME strategic campaign to drag Weyerhaeuser up on the carpet over its disdainable ways of operating and lack of commitment to investment. And we are planning to mobilize our most valuable resource — our member- ship — to vote out Campbell out of office in May of 2005. DECEMBER 2004. 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