Labour PARKSVILLE — Angry woodworkers reinforced their call for a royal commission to end corporate abuses in the forest indus- try with a 300-strong protest outside the last of the provincial forest ministry’s public information sessions here March 10. Chanting, “we want jobs,” the members of the IWA-Canada occupied the lawn outside the hearings in Island Hall, after arriving by bus from various island loca- tions. The recent layoff ot 425 workers in Fletcher Challenge’s operations as cited repeatedly as the final straw by repre- KISTNER sentatives of forest unions who called for a freeze on Tree Farm Licences at the sessions in this island community March 10 and 12. “We think that the people of British Columbia are being ripped off by the forest industry, and we are saying to the forest masters that the time for action is now,” declared !WA-Canada vice-president Roger Stanyer to the rally. 1 set aebonennetieeagantaiaesin New Titles ‘| | OUR UNFINISHED ip BUSINESS: U.S. Catholic Bishops Letter on Peace and the Economy By Phillip Barryman $12.50 (paperback) NUCLEAR EMPIRE < By Robert Alldrich 4 $11.95. i (paperback) WHAT ARE WE AFRAID OF? An assessment of the “Communist Threat” in Central America By John Lamperti $11.50 (paperback) 1391 COMMERCIAL DRIVE VANCOUVER, B.C. V5L_ 3X5 TELEPHONE 253-6442 IWA rally presses socreds on layoffs The rally included workers from Ladys- mith, Duncan, Tahsis, Port Renfrew and Campbell River, and Vancouver members who took the day off work to show their solidarity. The public information sessions follow legislation already passed that allows multi- national corporations to apply for a “‘roll- over” of volume-based forest licences into area-based Tree Farm Licences. Hotly con- tested is a Fletcher Challenge application to increase their licence in MacKenzie to a size twice the.area of Vancouver Island. “T would suggest this is just the beginning of (what is) actually going to happen around the province if he (Parker) tries to go ahead to roll over the tree farm licences,” Local 1-363 president Sy Pederson told the rally. New Democratic forest critic Ted Miller said the Fletcher Challenge layoffs and other cutbacks are only the tip of the ice- berg. Jack Kempf, independent MLA and former Socred forest minister, said the ses- sions were “the last stand and unless we take that stand we’re going to lose our forest industry.” Earl Foxcroft, president of the Port Alberni local, said people were tired of logs being shipped around the province to var- ious mills when the intent of the Tree Farm Licence program was to provide economic stability by processing logs in local mills. Some workers continued the demonstra- tion after the rally, shouting through the window of the hall where Parker was con- ducting the sessions. Inside the hearings representatives of forest unions pressed Parker to freeze all Tree Farm Licence applications and call a royal commission into forestry practices, citing enormous waste of the resource and the continuing layoffs. Claims that Tree Farm Licences provide market stability and jobs are belied by the recent Fletcher Challenge layoffs and the fact that 20,000 forest jobs have been lost in the last decade. Bill Routley of the [WA’s Duncan local said. Lyn Kistner: a camp chairperson in IWA-Canada Local 1-80, said the lavoff is “living proof the Tree Farm Licences do not work in the interests of forest based com- munities.” He noted the company overcut by 44 per cent in the south portion of TFL 46, where Kistner works, last year. ‘The local opposed Fletcher Challenge’s takeover of B.C. Forest Products in 1987 and asked the ministry to intervene, Kistner related. “Your government allowed them to go ahead and lay off 425 workers even after receiving the promises of (Fletcher Chal- lenge Canada president) Ian Donald. Your government is as much to blameas Fletcher Challenge is.” Ron Stewart of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, Local 11, cited layoffs that have devastated the communi- ties of Gold River, Tahsis and Zeballos by Canadian Pacific Forest Products as rea- sons for opposing the expansion of TFL 19. © OR © AREA e 4 tierce Aceh ele ke NO I | i t I t I 5: Oe Set ee ee ; Suivens® See ees I i | I FIRIBOUNE Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Street Vancouver, B.C. VSK 1Z5. Phone 251-1186 > SS. b2 te 2 Pee Se 0 0.4. O.8. 8 8 6 Boe 8. a 8 Postal Code lamenciosing 1yr.$200 2yrs.$350) 3yrs. $500 Foreign1 yr. $320 Bill me later Donation$........ 2 PR ee oe ae eee 8 O60 bts fh Fe) ee “Ss 365) © = * & see oS 4 eS * Reenanaecasenenenamincinanmnan an ensmmnmbiibiieaneinmaen icimemm an ewminn amend 12 « Pacific Tribune, March 20, 1989 Labour Notes Eastern Airlines ° on Fed hot list The B.C. Federation of Labour last week slapped a hot declaration on East- ern Airlines and Continental Airlines, both owned by U.S. airline union-buster Frank Lorenzo’s Texas Air. “We are ask- ing all unionized B.C. workers to refuse to handle any business for Continental and Eastern Airlines,” B.C. Fed _ presi- dent Ken Geor- getti said in a statement March 10. “We are also asking British Colum- bians, as consumers, to boycott these airlines.” ’ Georgetti said the federation “will not let Frank Lorenzo ... use Canadian workers’ in his battle to de-unionize his companies.” The B.C. Fed declaration followed Lorenzo’s action in filing his application in U.S. court for bankruptcy protection, less than a week after the International Association of Machinists launched a strike against Eastern in the U.S. The union’s picket lines were honoured by flight attendants and pilots, forcing a shutdown of most of the airline’s opera- tions. Lorenzo had used the bankruptcy tac- tic before at Continental, getting the court to force deep wage cuts and then re-opening the airline non-union. Fol- lowing the re-organization, he carried out what is known as “asset stripping” at Eastern, siphoning off various corporate assets to Continental at below-market prices. Changes in court bankruptcy proceed- ings since 1983 will make a repeat of the Continental union-busting more difficult since the company can no longer termi- nate union contracts without court approval and the court itself can set con- tract settlement terms. But Eastern exec- utives were still talking about hiring new pilots if current employees don’t cross picket lines, indicating that Lorenzo is still following his earlier agenda. Despite the bankruptcy proceedings, the IAM is continuing the strike, extend- ing picketing to Continental and other affiliated operations to keep the pressure on Lorenzo to settle. Both Eastern and Continental have operations out of Vancouver Interna- tional Airport, although Air Canada and Canadian Airlines International have stated that they will not honour connect- ing tickets with the two U.S. companies. GEORGETTI HEU wants ‘good | faith’ back pay The 28,000-member Hospital Employ- ees Union has called on Health Labour Relations Association, the bargaining agent for B.C.’s major acute care hospi- tals, to make good on its commitment for retroactive pay for 2,000 employees as a measure of good faith bargaining in the new round of contract talks. Some 1,200 patient care workers are owed back pay stemming from an arbi- tration award in 1987 and more than 800 full and part-time workers have retroac- tive pay coming as the result of a huge reclassification program negotiated as part of the last collective agreement. But the money hasn’t been paid yet, said HEU secretary-business manager Sean O’Flynn, adding that the union had set March 31 — the contract expiry date — as the deadline for the back pay issue to be settled. O’Flynn, a former secretary of the Ontario Federation of Labour and pres- ident of the Ontario Public Services Employees Union, was named to the HEU post last month, replacing Jack Gerow who stepped down last year. O'Flynn said the HEU was looking for expedited payment of the back pay “as a sign of good faith.” Once it is settled, he said, the union would be pre- pared to begin exchanging bargaining proposals. Two of the key issues in bargaining are expected to be pay equity for health care workers and improved patient care through increased staffing levels for HEU members, he said. The HEU-HLRA contract covers some 23,000 HEU members in 160 hos- pitals throughout the province. Ottawa aiding U.S. takeovers Canadian government officials and government offices are being used to assist U.S. investors in taking over Can- adian companies, the Coalition Against “Free” Trade charged this week. The group released copies of a bro- chure, issued by a U.S.-based company, ij = . | SOS Inc., adver- tising an execu- tive seminar on “Screening Can- ma adian Private and Public Compan- ties.” The seminar | is based on four | years of “com- petitive intelli- gence” and is in- ‘ tended to show VOHANKA executives how to gather information on Canadian com- panies, including government subsidies available to them — information that is vital for takeovers. SOS Inc. also cited the Canada-U.S. trade deal, emphasizing that the deal increased the importance of the seminar. What has angered anti-free trade acti- vists is that the seminar is to be held at the Canadian consulate in New York and both Inger Hansen, the Canadian Information Commissioner, and Bruce Probert, the chief of public and corpo- rate services for Consumer and Corpo- rate Affairs Canada, are scheduled to address seminar participants. “The government is helping U.S. firms to buy out Canada,” charged Coalition co-chair Sue Vohanka. “It’s bad enough that U.S. firms own so much of Canada already. Taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay salaries to Canadian officials to speed up these buyouts.” Vohanka cited figures to show that for every billion dollars in profits, U.S.- owned firms create only 17 jobs, while Canadian-owned firms create over 5,000 jobs. ~ a