ead |

ER

| PORT ALBERNI — In sharp
Contrast to the half empty parking’
Hots above the MacMillan Bloedel
on the Alberni inlet, the
(Modest offices of Local 1-85 of the

WA a few blocks away are abuzz
With activity. At a time when 30:
Percent of the IWA membership is
Dut of work, the union has hired ex-.
tra staff,

Local president Ear! Foxcroft
€xplained that the six elected union
Officers needed help to keep up
with the dramatically increased
work load of coping with the

€conomic and social grievances of
jthe membership, both employed
and unemployed, while applying
Pressure on MacMillan Bloedel
j@nd the federal and provincial
| S0vernments to do something
*Pout the unemployment crisis.
)

ur success ratio is not so
, 800d,” he admits. The response
, ‘Tom the company on every social
Se €conomic issue raised so far
; ieee “unsatisfactory,” and
:. 1s about the mildest term that
, Shyone in 1-85 would use to
be company policy.
However in recent weeks the
Union has received valuable
ae from the unemployed
; Jemselves who have formed the
Organization of Unemployed
Orkers (OQUW).’’ The

oral Labor Council, pressing
© company to extend medical and
ental coverage and to give some

_ “rect answers to the unemployed
, Who are wondering if they will ever

be called back to work.
Employers will not hesitate to

lay off m, .
tors Be Ore. and our great protec

; Mnett and Trudeau will do

pothing . . . The OUW believes
. bottom line is to organize,”’
ads a leaflet calling workers to the

ee first public meeting Mar.

7 The organization has its roots

Whit’ Alberni \Labor Council
com Struck an unemployment
roa, eel investigate new ap-
initi, = to fighting the crisis. An
bnere méeting drew 20
os Ployed workers, a steering
| the guiteeof eight was elected, and
No secr, was launched. It makes
bace it that the union office is its
has Of operations, and the union

“jw ,rclcomed the initiative. “The

supe alizes how badly it needs the

o Of the unemployed,’”’ Dave

chain, » young union activist and

assur an of the OUW, states
edly,

mat? formation of the OUW has

they, temendous difference to

a Union in its fight for public sup-

oat » 1-85 secretary Monty Mearns

| Greets, and public pressure is in-

Sion sad decisive to win conces-
Ment fom the company or govern-
| mane Every issue addressed to
town mt has been responded
Meare + unequivocal,’’ no,”’ says
times in ‘they know that in these
ild Itis difficult to pull crews or
us. 52 and so they think they have
Presstine ,is why we need public

tiny Ceotding to Mearns, the first

kyon M-Bagreed to discuss the
| Wha.» “ith the union was Feb. 23,
brieg Management officials met

Y with union officers.

five € union has pressed four or
help esues with management to
| % oe the unemployment crisis,
Mogt i Without success. One of the
| the /MPortant immediate issues is

dentay wtimuation of medical and
emp) benefits of laid off Somass
The rYces which ran out Feb. 28.

© loss of the benefits meant an

| Unemployed group has been work- _
| "Ng with the IWA and the Port

extra $30 per month for the
unemployed for family medical
coverage and certain abandonment
of dental care for most families.
The union asked the company for
“a gesture of good faith’’ to con-
tinue the benefits for those workers
who would be recalled when
market conditions allowed for a
resumption of full production. The
double edged request also would
have drawn out of M-B an indica-
tion of who were laid off and who
were actually terminated.

The company gave no response,
and the passing of Feb. 28 in-
dicated a negative answer. But con-
tinuing pressure from the union
and the OUW which issued a public
statement questioning M-B’s
“many statements about the com-
pany’s concern for the

EARL FOXCROFT. . . looking to

a slow recovery.

‘ community” apparently had some

effect. On Mar. 5 company of-
ficials agreed to ‘‘consider’’ the
union proposition.

The. union also. has pressed the
company to open a nursery opera-
tion in the Alberni Valley, arguing
that if the company is serious about
intensifying silviculture a local
nursery is needed. M-B answered
that there is no money for a nurs-
ery.

There is good reason, however,
to doubt the company rationaliza-
tion that costs are a factor. The
company is spending money on
new machinery where it suits its
purposes — a $1 million budget to
expand the chemical treatment and
automatic lumber strapping opera-
tion at the APD mill, for example
— and in the case of hog fuel for
the pulp mill, M-B could both
create jobs and save money.

According to the WA, the com-
pany is buying chips and hog fuel

from Nanaimo to fuel the pulp mill
for as much as $27 per cunt. The
same could be produced at the idle
“<BR” mill in the Somass operation
for $6 per cunit. Meanwhile, a con-

-veyor from the Somass mill along
the waterfront to the pulp mill is
rarely used. a

A direct case of M-B duplicity
was over a union proposition to
hire unemployed union members
for tree planting operations. The
company claimed that it had
already tendered the job and had a
low bid from a contractor, but that
it would switch to another contrac-
tor if a second bid was received.

As it turned out, a former union
activist who had been involved in
job actions to protest the use of

dangerous chemicals, had formed

a tree planting group In coopera-

' tion with the Department of Indian
was to hire

i isi the
commitment. Not surprisingly,
! contractor awarded the job is a

SPECIAL REPORT

‘Bottom line is to organize’ — OUW

right wing, anti-union group based
in Nelson, Evergreen Co-op.

A large frustration, the tree
planting issue involved only a
handful of jobs. That in itself
underlines the need for more fun-
damental solutions, and the debate
over the way out the crisis is taking
place all over Alberni, especially
among the unemployed.

The company seems content to
engage in diversionary and in-
conclusive discussion locally, but
“Sit refuses to discuss the real ques-
tion — government policy and high
interest rates,’? comments Dave
Crosby of the OUW. ‘‘M-B isn’t
complaining about high interest
rates.”

‘‘This is not a cyclical turndown.
It is the result of deliberate policies
— Reagonomics, that is the issue,”
adds Don Lloyd, a member of the
OUW steering committee.

- Crosby, Lloyd and Bill Massey,
who helped found the OUW after
being laid off at Alply with six and
ahalf years seniority, think that the
unemployed have to get political.
Massey is convinced the time is

~ right for large scale political educa-

tion in Alberni, to mobilize the
unemployed and to reach a consen-
sus on a jobs program.

The crisis itself is forcing many
to think politically. “‘Many of the
younger workers feel betrayed,”
says Lloyd, ‘‘But they are not sure
yet who betrayed them — the
union, the company, or the system.
The role of the OUW is to explain
what is happening and to tell peo-
ple that cuts and concessions to the
company are not the answer. We
have to rally the troops and make
sure.that our leaders lead.”’

“Tt is up to Canada as a whole to
make economic decisions. All we
can do as unemployed workers is
organize and agree what we think
needs to be done,’’ says Crosby. He
contends that the first step has to be
a ‘‘made-in-Canada interest rate”’
coupled with exchange controls,
and “‘cutting the arms budget to
bare essentials.”

There has to be a basic shift in
production towards secondary
manufacturing as well, Crosby ad-
des. ‘‘Most countries try to export
unemployment, but we export
jobs,”’ he comments, pointing to
the billion dollar subsidy to export
north east coal to Japan.

Lloyd and Massey favor the six
hour working day as one solution
to the unemployment crisis. ‘“The
issue has credibility in this town,”
said Massey, pointing out that it
was endorsed by the union local
last year as a bargaining demand,
“although it never made it through
the region (the IWA’s regional
bargaining conference).””

Massey also would like to see the
OUW and the union take up the
fight for a supplementary
unemployment insurance plan to

~ be negotiated with the employers.

. working peo-
ple ready to take action, given
the leadership.

BILL MASSEY. .

ization of unemployed.

The supplementary plan would
have the employer boost UI
benefits, normally at below 50 per-
cent of income, up to 75-80 percent
of income. ‘‘That would protect
buying power and ease the impact
of the crisis on the community.
And it would be a pressure on the
company not to lay off workers,”
he said.

The political solutions being
discussed among the unemployed
have yet to be taken up directly by
the IWA. Foxcroft says that the
union is still hoping that the grow-
ing lobby in the U.S. onthe Reagan
administration to change its
policies will bring interest levels
down soon. In fact it is that projec-
tion which underlies the predictions
of the IWA’s regional council, bas-
ed in Vancouver, that there will be
an upturn in markets this summer
——.a._ projection. which many. ques-
tion.

And if the U.S. lumber industry
is successful in having tariffs ap-
plied to Canadian wood exports,
‘St will be disastrous,”’ said Fox-
croft. For that reason the union has
joined with the companies to op-
pose tariffs at hearings currently
underway in Portland, Oregon.

The union considers wood supp-
ly to be the key issue for long tenn
job prospects. ‘‘The federal and
provincial governments should be
getting together with the industry
and getting into forestry programs
to guarantee permanent jobs,”’
says Foxcroft. He adds a reforesta-
tion program in the order of $100
million is needed to start.

The tripartite approach to the
future of the industry is shared by
NDP MP for Comox-Alberni Ray
Skelly who has called on the federal
government to establish a
marketing agency to help sell B.C.
lumber products in the U.S. and
other world markets.

School trustee Gary Swann,
spokesman for the Communist
Party in Alberni, has a different
emphasis. He favors labor deman-
ding a say over MacMillan
Bloedel’s investment policy, and,
when possible, nationalization of
the forest giant.

The company’s automation and
rationalization program is re-
inforcing the reliance of the Alber-
ni valley on simple lumber and
plywood production, rather than
diversifying into secondary in-
dustry based on the forest resource,
he says. He wants changes in the
Forest Act to require massive com-
pany investment in labor intensive
reforestation programs, and calls
for the creation of new industries in
Alberni such as a furniture in-
dustry, pre-fabricated homes and
petrochemicals.

But the immediate necessity, he
says, is a large scale public housing

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 12, 1982—Page 7

MONTY MEARNS (r), DON LLOYD .. . local union RTE organ-

program. The money could be
redirected federally from the

- military budget and provincially by

cancelling the coal deal. About 25
per cent of B.C. wood production
is used in Canada, mainly for hous-
ing, and the first priority should be
to produce more and use more
lumber for social needs in Canada,
he says.

As the debate over the best
policies to solve the unemployment
crisis continues, the sharpest dif-
ferences are among the various
views on what to do now.

The OUW has called for a mass
demonstration for jobs to greet the
opening of the legislature, a pro-
posal supported by local union of-
ficers. Swann also is pressing for a
demonstration in Victoria and
similar proposals from local
unions, similar proposals from
local. unions and. labor. counci .
have been put to the BC Federatior.
of Labor.

Local 1-85 has also called fora

ea

DAVE CROSBY . . . need made-
in-Canada interest rate.

one-day special delegated con-
ference of the IWA in B.C. to
discuss the unemployment crisis
and map out a plan of action.
However, Foxcroft says that the.
proposal has been turned down by
the regional council which said
most locals couldn’t afford to send
delegates at this time. Nevertheless,
under the [WA constitution, a
special conference can be called if it
has the support of three local union
presidents.

Mearns emphasizes that 1-85 is a
militant local union, the only one in
the province to reject the industry
wide contract last summer, But the
local wants to convince, rather than
confront, others in the [WAtotake
a similar stance.

Massey of the OUW agrees that
workers in Alberni are ready to
take action, given sound leader-
ship. ‘‘Working people in this town
are proud,”’ he says. ‘“They know
what it means to live decently, and
ine will fight for their right to do

at.”” :