IWA TO APPEAL
COURT JUDGEMENT

The IWA Regional Council has applied to
the Supreme Court of Canada for leave to

appeal the judgement of the B.C. Court of

Appeal upholding mandatory retirement.

A member of Local 1-405 IWA, Cranbrook,
Kazimer Shuflita, was retired by his
employer March 31, 1978, because he had
reached age 65, March 16, 1978. The member
was a good and competent worker with an
excellent work record, and was in excellent
health.

His request to be allowed to continue
working was denied by the company
because of its retirement policy for
employees reaching age 65.

Grievance proceedings were instituted by
Local 1-405 and the case went to arbitration.
The Local argued that there was nothing in
the collective agreement stating an
employee had to retire at age 65, and the
employer’s action contravened the Human
Rights Code.

However, the arbitrator ruled that manda-
tory retirement at age 65 was not prohibited
so long as reasonable cause existed. In his
findings he stated that a reasonable cause
did exist because of the uniform policy of
mandatory retirement at age 65 in the forest
industry.

The Local then took the case to the B.C.
Court of Appeal where on April 22, Mr.
Justice Seaton, after studying the evidence
with two fellow judges, ruled in a written
submission that the mandatory retirement
of Kazimer Shuflita was not necessarily a
violation of the Human Rights Code in this
instance and disallowed the appeal.

The IWA is not opposed to its members
retiring at age 65, provided that they are
financially able to do so. In fact the Union
has encouraged its members to take early
retirement when possible.

However, it is violently opposed to any
policy which can arbitrarily retire a worker
because of age.

15,000,000 JOBS LOST
BY PLANT CLOSURES

At least 15 million workers in the United
States lost their jobs between 1969 and 1976
because of plant shutdowns and in many
cases the shutdowns had no economic
justification, according to a new labour-
backed study.

Economists Barry Bluestone and Bennett
Harrison said a number of plants were
abandoned not because they were incapable
of making a profit, but instead to satisfy tax
loss needs of conglomerates, to transfer
resources into even more profitable enter-
prise, or for a variety of other reasons.

In most cases, they said, the shutdowns
were undertaken without any thought to the
“social violence’ done the displaced
workers or their communities.

The report, “Capital and Communities:
Causes and consequences of private dis-
investment,” also attacks as a myth the
belief that capital flight is only a regional
problem with a relatively limited impact on
workers and their communities.

It is not simply a “contest” between the
“Sunbelt” and the “Frostbelt”, the econo-
mists declared, ““‘but a more pervasive
problem involving the exportation abroad
of entire industries.”

In fact, they said, the rate of shutdown of
larger “established” manufacturing con-
cerns are higher in the South than in the
North Central region of the country.

The report was prepared at the request of
the Progressive Alliance, a labour-led coali-

8/Lumber Worker/May, 1980

———————E_[_——E ee

CAPITAL AND COMMUNITIES:

THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES
OF PRIVATE DISINVESIMENT

by

Barry Bluestone
and

Bennett Harrison

A Progressive Alliance Publication

‘The Progresive Alliance
1625 LSteet NW
Washington. DC 20036
(202) 452.4804

tion of unions and religious, environmental,
civil rights, community action and women’s
groups.

Alliance chairperson Douglas Fraser,
president of the United Auto Workers,
termed the report “critically important.” He
predicted that society’s most serious prob-
lem in the 1980s would be that of plant
closings and economic dislocation.

William Olwell, vice-president of the Food
and Commercial Workers, said his own
union has lost 100,000 jobs in the retail
trades and 50,000 in meatpacking over the
past five years. He said investors were
buying up the retail stores “strictly for their
book value so they can close them and then
claim their assets” for tax purposes. Middle-
aged and women members were being hit
most severely, he said.

Mike Stone, a vice-president of the Rubber
Workers, noted that his union has lost
17,000 jobs over the past two years due to the
closing of 17 tire plants. “Hopefully, some
eyes will be opened by this study,” Stone
said.

LOCAL 1-71
ANNUAL MEETING

Officers of Local 1-71 (Loggers’ Local)
reporting to the Local’s 30th Annual Dele-
gated Meeting May 8-9, in Vancouver,
suggested to the delegates that an informed
membership was the most effective way to
meet the challenges of the “eighties”.

With this in view the officers embarked in
the new year on a very ambitious and costly
education programme for the Local’s
members. Ernie Freer, the former president
of the Local, was assigned full time to the
task of conducting job steward seminars
throughout the Local.

The Local pays the cost of having the
students taken off the job for the two-day
sessions where they are instructed in such
subjects as seniority, safety & health, and
grievance procedure.

The Local is also making available educa-
tion material for evening Sub-Local or
community meetings. At the moment the
subject being discussed at the evening
meetings is related to the IWA-Forest
Industry Pension Plan.

The officers have had printed a booklet
for distribution to the membership focusing
on such areas as the Master Agreement, the
Compensation Act and Regulations, etc.
The book is well illustrated and highly
informative.

Political action and organization were
two other subjects stressed by the officers.
They pointed out that five New Democratic
Party candidates were elected to office
within the Local’s geographic boundary,
and commended the IWA members who so
effectively supported the Party.

Since the last Annual Meeting the Local
has organized twenty new certifications
and signed collective agreements. In report-

i new certifications, the officers
ing ee ede we are to keep the protection and
benefits of our Master Agreement we must
keep our operations totally organized into
Union.”

°"The delegates had a busy two-day meet-
ing dealing with eighty-two resolutions and
thirty By-Law changes, electing delegates
to the various conventions and conferences
and hearing from the guest speakers.

International second vice-president Bud
Rahberger spoke on the problems the forest
industry in the United States was expe-
riencing due to the high interest rates. He
stated that while the lack of housing starts
was also seriously affecting Canada, it was
hurting IVA members in the U.S. more
because a number of the operations going
into negotiations were being locked out by
the employers. ;

Until the economic picture brightens, he
stated, U.S. IWA members face the prospect
of no work and no unemployment insurance
entitlement.

Regional first vice-president Bob Blan-
chard discussed the progress of the Union’s
Troubled Employee Programme, which he
said, was moving along in the right
direction.

He was hopeful that in the near future the
Union would be in the position to aid any
troubled employee in the industry and that
the programme could also be instrumental
in preventing some of the problems
members were having.

MUNRO 10 CO-CHAIR
FOREST CONGRESS

Regional president Jack Munro has been
asked to co-chair a major forest conference
to be held September 22-23, at the Ontario
Science Centre in Toronto.

The conference will seek to focus public
attention on the importance of the Cana-
dian forest resource and its present and
future needs.

Some 500 delegates representing indus-
try, government, unions and universities
are expected to participate in the congress.

A major concern of the meeting will be the
examination of the social and economic
benefits to Canadians of a well-managed
forest.

The other co-chairmen will be Adam H.
Zimmerman of Toronto, president of North-
wood Pulp and Timber Limited. Mr. Zim-
merman is also chairman of the forest
policy committee of the executive board,
Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.

He says the meeting will provide an
excellent opportunity to inform the public of
the importance of the forest to all Canadi-
ans and focus attention on the needs of the
forest as well as its potential for future
development.

The request for Munro to co-chair the
conference is an indication of the impor-
tance government and industry show the
Union for its campaign to improve forest

management practices and intensify fore-
stry in Canada.

=;
zx

Canadian
=N Forest
7 Congress
ONTARIO

SCIENCE CENTRE

Toronto
September 22-23, 1980