le AS oo all UTEP TMEABR EMMA RIAL TU LTEMRRUN A PUT WOAH, | ILLWMPIAIY LAT tt Ep BRITISH COLUMBIA & 1 cal Canada Employment Centre. ' Members of Carpenters Local 1928 confront company truck escorted by RCMP officer through their picket line at Colwood Industries in Surrey, Sept. 8. Some seven scabs are doing the work of 15 members of the industrial local, on strike for the past nine weeks after the employer opted out of the Collective agreement signed by 1 0 other similar companies in the area, and stead demanded concessions. Local 1928 staged a support rally Friday, and asking other trade unions to show their support. Scab jobs are posted in the _titish Columbia’s peace forces will con- ate their efforts during the next year on Ng the entire province a nuclear- +, Pons free zone, delegates to a weekend Conference decided. handily approving a workshop Gen sation at the second annual B.C. «. v*tence on Peace, more than 100 repre- a aves of 75 peace organizations backed V. Mpaign by End the Arms Race and ver city council’s special committee ae to gather support from municipal- i. a petition to the provincial govern- The conference, held at the University of nig? 280 set as key priorities efforts to keep 3 In : yea weapons carrying warships out of - Ports and to make the achievement of Dong nPtehensive test ban on nuclear wea- 4 local priority. ae representative Sheena Lambert ate effort to halt visits by warships Dart bly carrying nuclear weapons will in Tt be dovetailed with the priority cam- Sag to declare the province nuclear- Pons free. The campaign was first announced at a «SS Conference last week at Vancouver no in which Ald. Libby Davies — who and Council’s special peace committee — te disarmament activists cited the most “ent visit of nine United States Navy ves- to Vancouver. | Be AR president Frank Kennedy, Peter eg of Operation Dismantle and Vet- oy Against Nuclear Arms spokesmen -(Ret.) Norman Hoye and Commander shi t.) Roger Sweeny said the presence of the of Ps, throws into question Canada’s policy Teecting nuclear arms. Me The fact is that the Canadian govern- shine Teally has no control over nuclear PS entering our country,” Kennedy "Marked. i vies told the press conference that tha over city council will debate a motion tthe city urge the other 40 B.C. munici- Munro slams forest ‘landlords’ ae Continued from page 1 -Stitutional convention of the new Cana- N district of the IWA, created by the “tger of Region 1 and Region 2, based in tern Canada. ne erybody in B.C. knows the industry is thay ©? * he said. “Even the industry knows e evidence was clear when they 84n to spend $30,000 a day attacking us.” Sup € union was also given messages of leg fet for its strike stand from NDP Moa Ed Broadbent and Nanaimo NDP A Frank Stupich, both of whom «essed the convention Monday. You Ou must win your strike because tog © 2 a fight for your survival,” Stupich th delegates. “You have to win because if Who loses, other workers lose and the © community suffers.” Toadbent told the convention the NDP Wha On your side 100 per cent,” adding that Wi Was at stake during the strike “is hay, ther you will retain the social rights you 9 . fought for ... or whether those on the “t side will tear up those rights.” at yt federal NDP leader also lashed out talk © Mulroney government’s free trade Ne calling them a “suicidal mission.” ttaqe 28 Munro’s stated support of free €in lumber, he urged the IWA to “look Peace forces set goal n-weapons free B.C. palities which are also declared nuclear- weapons free zones to petition Victoria to declare the entire province as such a zone. In backing that plan, the B.C. peace con- ference mandated EAR and the special council committee on peace to produce a resource kit for the campaign that will involve local peace groups pressing their municipal councils to petition the provincial government to make the nuclear-weapons free declaration. : ; Delegates also backed a motion noting that U.S. maritime war strategy is highly destabilizing and that nuclear-weapons car- rying vessels constitute an “unacceptable risk” to host communities. The resolution urged “the federal government to respect the wishes for life and health of the residents of British Columbia, and refuse all warships. . not guaranteed to be nuclear-weapons free access to the ports and waters of British Columbia.” The conference also targetted as a prior- ity the achievement of a comprehensive test ban, through: © Approaching municipalities which have been declared nuclear weapons free to make the ban a “local priority;” e@ Recommending the Canadian Peace Alliance begin a fund-raising campaign to facilitate a full-page newspaper advertise- ment urging Canada to support a test moratorium, prior to such a vote in the United Nations; @ Integrating the campaign into other B.C. peace campaigns; @ Lobbying local MPs to support a moratorium. The conference also resolved to telegram Ottawa asking the Mulroney government whether a cabinet decision has been made on the question of Canada’s integration into the U.S. Star Wars scheme through plans for air defences and the early warning sys- tems, known collectively as Strategic Defence Architecture 2000, Phase II. at what the U.S. has done to Canada in grain, in tubular steel and hydroelectric power. “Tn lumber, action was taken by the U.S. to destroy Canadian jobs, action that was directly supported by President Reagan,” he said, referring to the tariffs imposed on Canadian shakes and shingles. He called on Mulroney “for once to say no to his American friends and to say yes to the interests of Canadians.” Two resolutions on free trade calling on Canada to withdraw from comprehensive free trade negotiations, were among several resolutions to be debated by convention delegates. If passed, the resolutions would mark a shift for the IWA which, because of its sup- port of free trade in lumber, has not spoken out against comprehensive free trade as have other unions. Early in convention debate Monday, delegates once agin rejected a proposal to establish a forestry endowment fund initiated by IWA pension funds. The fund, first suggested by Munro two years ago, was turned down by the membership at the time. But the union’s Haney local re- introduced the issue in a resolution to this convention. IWA moving to establish Canadian independence After nearly half a century as the Interna- tional Woodworkers, the TWA in Canada will be moving to become an autonomous Canadian union, following the lead of the Canadian Autoworkers and the Canadian Paperworkers in negotiating an amicable separation from the Portland-based inter- — national union. IWA. regional president Jack Munro announced the plans formally at the union’s convention in Nanaimo — the first consti- tutional convention of the newly-merged Regions 1 and 2 — where he told delegates that they would be talking about “another major change in the union. “From both sides of the border, we agreed that this was the time — not fight- ing, not divided, but together — to create two national strong industrial unions,” he said. “We will stay friends.and help each other where we can,” he added, “‘but we are elim- inating the level of the international union.” If approved by the Canadian membership — and that approval will almost certainly be overwhleming — the separation will be formalized at the union’s.international con- vention, scheduled for November. Munro told reporters later that the deci- sion to create an autonomous union was prompted by “‘a difference in philosophies between the trade union movement in Can- ada and that in the U.S.” Y JACK MUNRO employers want industry workers to become “’share- croppers.”’ Basically that differences comes down to the fact that “they are negotiating conces- sions and we refuse to negotiate conces- sions,” he said. Forest Industrial Relations, representing the major coast employers, attempted to use concessions won.from. the TWA in the Pacific Northwest to wrest a similar deal from woodworkers in this province four years ago but were met by the [WA’s stand against wage rollbacks, supported by the Canadian Labor Congress’ no-concessions position. A concessions agreement, which the U.S. union signed this year with Weyer- haueser, also brought a reaction from the IWA here. Munro also cited finances as a factor, noting that the $2.04 per month per capita paid to the international office would now stay in Canada to assist woodworkers here. He also noted that the campaign in the US. for countervailing duties against Can- adian lumber exports to the U.S. was also a “minor irritant,” although he downplayed its importance in the union’s decision to re-structure the union. The union’s regional executive board was to present a statement on the creation of an autonomous Canadian region to the con- vention this week. Following that it will go to the international convention. Still to be determined is the name of the new union although Munro said he pre- ferred to retain “IWA,” despite what the initials represent. The issue of autonomy has been raised several times by the IWA membership over the years, notably in a convention a decade ago when pressure for Canadian union autonomy was a major issue throughout the trade union movement, and when a move of the international office to Vancouver was suggested. But pressure was stepped up considerably by the increasing tendency of U.S. unions to accept concession bargaining and by successful establishment of the Can- adian Autoworkers, created by a separation from the UAW. The 42,000 members of the WA in Can- ada constitute some 60 per cent of the membership in the international. The establishment of a Canadian TWA will also put the entire organized work force in the wood industry in this province in Canadian unions. Pulp workers are cur- rently in two Canadian unions, the inde- pendent Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada and the Canadian Paperworkers Union, created by separation from the International Pulp and Sulphite Workers in 1974. That in turn could give new impetus to discussions with the CPU and PPWC about co-operation and possible merger. Dele- gates to the convention were to discuss a resolution calling for talks with the pulp unions about steps to create “one union in wood.” ‘i PACIFIC TRIBUNE, SEPTEMBER 17, 1986 e 3 —o ARTI