Helton Industries pays low
wages and benefits. norman Garcia

Local union works to organize
Fraser Valley door makers
In mid-October, USW Local 1-
3567 applied to certify a bar-
gaining unit of 122 workers at
Helton Industries, an overhead
door and window plant in
Abbotsford. The vote was lost
in November. For over two
years, disgrun-
tled workers
have been con-
tacting the
USW about
their problems.
The union
began the cam-
Gordie Mcintosh paign in
August. Low
wages and benefits and unfair
treatment of workers are impor-
tant issues that need resolution.
“People are quitting or are get-
ting fired, left and right,” says
lead organizer Gordie McIntosh.
Although the employer claims
to place a priority on customer
service, McIntosh notes that it
can’t keep a
steady crew.
The union esti-
mates that as
many as 20
workers left the
company ina
month and a
half period
prior to the application. The
campaign was also worked on
by district organizer Susan
Carrigan and local business
agent Manjit Sidhu. Mcintosh
predicts the workers will join
the union in the future.

1 sgaNtNDER
Looe

= Left tor. are new Local 1-425 members Steve Lamont, Antonio Castro, Shawn Masters
and Derek Burbrigdechard. sonny rioux

LABOUR BOARD RULES IN USW’S FAVOUR ON RAIDING PERIOD

Tradesmen go with Steelworkers

THE DISTRICT'S Williams Lake local
union has recently grown by 26 new
members. Former members of the non-
affiliated Canadian Union of Skilled
(CUSW) workers decided to leave their
small organization in favour of the
Steelworkers.

“It’s refreshing to know that workers
who are confronted with weak represen-
tation have turned to a union with the
strength to represent their interests,”
noted District 3 Director Steve Hunt.

Local union president Bill Derbyshire,
who notes that bargaining unit is under
a collective agreement negotiated by the

CUSW, until December of
2007, says the local will
work with the new mem-
bership to protect and
enhance wages, benefits
and working conditions.
Bill Derbyshire NW Energy (Williams
Lake Corp) is a co-generation plant that
consumes waste by-products from local
sawmills. Williams Lake is a forest
industry town in the province’s Cariboo

Region, which has several certified forest
industry operations.

Union organizer Sonny Rioux worked
on the successful campaign along with

local officers Mitch Van

Dale, Bob McNair and

Terry Tate.
z During the drive the
union fought and won an
important case, at the BC
Labour Relations Board,
to have the CUSW contract interpreted to
being open under Section 19 of the BC
Labour Relations Act. The contract had
confusing, multiple dates, as to when it
was to be in effect.

Tate said the decision can serve to
help the union in future organizing
drives. He noted that the Board ruled
that a collective agreement's language
must be clear and that, under the Code,
the window of time that a competing
union can apply for certification and rep-
resentation rights have to made clear to
help facilitate an orderly transition to the
new union if it wins the vote.

Sonny Rioux

46 | DECEMBER 2006 THE ALLIED WORKER