= Pictured are members at the
‘Smurfit-MBI Etobicoke plant.
PHOTO NORMAN GARCIA

IWA Council unites three
Smurfit-MBI units for talks

Steelworkers-IWA Council
chairperson Norm Rivard is
the head negotiator for three
Smurfit-MBI bargaining units
in Ontario. The union is
launching into contract talks
for workers at the company’s
plants in Prembroke (Local 1-
1000), Whitby (Local 1-500)
and Etobicoke (Image Pak,
certified to Local 1-500). Also
at the bargaining table are
Local 1-500 president Bruce
Weber and Local 1-1000 presi-
dent Michael McCarter and
members of plant commit-
tees. Contracts in all three
operations expire on
December 31, 2005. “We will
be looking for a pattern
agreement which will keep a
level playing field at the
plants,” says Brother Rivard.

Chinese competition kills 40
jobs at Norceram plant

This past August, forty Local 1-
1000 members at Norcerman
Products in Engleside, Ontario,
were given the pink slips. The
company, which manufactures
washroom bowls for the recre-
ation vehicle market, has been
facing low wage competition
from China. Management staff
have been hit by layoffs as
well. The remaining crew of 20
\Steelworkers is employed on
‘one day shift only.

HERON MOI TARINO)

[> Plywood talks underway Local
I-1000 president Michael McCarter says
the union is currently at the bargaining
table for a first contract with the WC
Edwards plywood plant (a division of
Commonwealth Plywood) in
Pembroke, Ontario. By mid-November,
most non-monetary issues had been.
solved as the union seeks a 2-3 year
agreement. [> Mediated Settlement
at Fib-Pak A strike was narrowly avert-
ed at the Fib-Pak synthetic fiber plant in
Hawkesbury. On November 3 members
of Local 1-r000 voted 28-21 in favour of
a mediated settlement. Workers were in
favour of walking out the next day, had

a contract not been reached. The crew,
which faces low wage competition from
the United States, is to receive an addi-
tional 30 cents per hour retroactive pay
for hours, worked by to October 3,
2004, the last contract’s expiry date.
Workers also receive across-the-board
wages increases of $1.05 per hour over 3
years. [> Skyway Lumber Local 1-
500’s Ron Diotte reports that a three-
year agreement, covering three workers,
has been reached at Skyway Lumber in
St. Catharines. Negotiations, the agree-
ment and ratification took place on
November 3. Two workers there have
over 28 years seniority.

mT ener

ANU BIENR) TA

[> Atlas Lumber Closure October
12 was the last day of work for Local r-

207 members at the Atlas Lumber mill in

Crowsnest Pass. The Steelworkers bar-
gained a severance package to keep the
small mill going until its last day. Half of

the crew, which has over 20 years seniori-

ty, were paid for 10 additional weeks. In
Alberta, notice of closure is required ver-
sus payment of severance. [> Timber
Quota goes to Non-union Sawmill
Local union financial secretary Dean Lott
notes that Atlas Lumber has sold a public
timber quota to Spray Lakes sawmill, a
non-union mill in a town of the same
name, about 2 hours south of Crownest
Pass. In other words, a private company
has made profits dealing public timber,
mothballing 50 family-supporting jobs.
Conservative MPP David Coutts
(Livingstone-Macleod) refused to meet
with the union to even discuss the tim-

ber sale and loss of jobs. [>
Creek Wood on the Road too! After
Canfor closed its Hines Creek stud mill at
the end of June, this year, 100 Local 1-207
members lost their jobs. The company
simply took its timber quota on south
down the highway, about 90 minutes to
its larger sawmill in Grande Prairie. In
the last 20 months, the local union has
lost over 300 members, including work-
ers affected by the Weyerhaeuser Grande
Cache closure in February of 2004 and
the subsequent closure of the Weyco
reload at Sunnybrook.
Delivered at Drayton Valley
Steelworkers safety reps recently met with
management at the Weyerhaeuser OSB
and sawmill facilities in Drayton Valley.
Workers told the company that its drug
testing policy is unfair and that there is a
fear of reporting accidents by some
workers.

Hines

Message

_ 42 [DECEMBER 2005 THE ALLIED WORKER