NOVEL NEW HOME
FOR REGION THREE

IWA Regional Council No. 3, has built
what is believed to be Oregon’s first major
commercial building to use solar energy asa
basic heat source, and has come up with
some fringe benefits in the process.

The $498,000 headquarters is located in
Gladstone, Oregon, and was completed in
December, 1979. It merges happily into the
western Oregon landscape, looking like “a
big home”, as IWA president Vernon Russel
had hoped. Noticeably absent are the huge
black panels, bulbous clerestoreis, or other
massive collectors aften associated with
solar construction.

Solar components, however, are expected
to produce energy savings of 50-65% — and
builders say they added little to total
construction cost.

“Construction costs directly related to the
use of solar were minimal,” says Howard
Glazer, AIA, The Architect's Forum,
architect for the building. “Many of the
solar-related features serve multiple
purposes. We were also able to save
hundreds of square feet of building area by
locating mechanical equipment in ‘attic’
space, which is often wasted.”

Glazer says the half-acre site, facing
south and overlooking the Clackamas
River, was a critical factor in the decision to
use solar radiation as a major energy source.
Sunlight is admitted through a 4-foot by 160-
foot clerestory and through a windowed
wall which face 15° east of solar south.
Considered a “hybrid” solar system because
it combines active and passive elements,
solar components include:

—Solar-assisted heat pumps located in
the attic mechanical room to avoid use of
expensive resistance coil heat normally
necessary as a heat pump cold-weather
back-up. Solar radiation admitted through
the clerestory maintains air temperatures
high enough to operate units efficiently
without back-up.

—Solar-heated air from the clerestory
circulates through river rock storage
beneath the north side of the building and
radiates through the four-inch concrete pad
on which the building rests.

—‘“Bonus” corridor lighting comes
through translucent panels which transmit
sunlight which is reflected from aluminum
insulation on walls around the clerestory to
the hallway below.

—A series of low brick counters, 24 inches
wide and 30 inches high, weighs a total of 30
tons and serves both as picture window-
privacy shield and also as a “thermal
mass,” storing and transferring heat from
the sun into the offices. The dark brick
provides a pleasant couterpoint to paneled
walls, and counters serve variously as
informal seating, work tables, and plant
shelves.

Mechanical Engineer Ed Long of
Long Maxwell & Associates, Tigard, who
predicts the 50-65% energy savings, says
that location of heat pumps indoors is
unusual, “fooling” heat pumps into
operating efficiently without need for
expensive resistance coil heating as winter
backup.

The approximately 10,000-square foot
building is also designed to reduce demand
on the heat pumps for summer air cooling. A
wide eave overhangs picture windows.
Wooden louvers in each office provide
adequate natural ventilation on all but the
hottest days. Trees around the building and
along the river bank are deciduous, bare-
limbed in winter when maximum exposure
to the sun is vital, leafed out in summer to
provide additional shade.

While energy saving is of major interest in
connection with the new Woodworkers’
Headquarters, president Russell is happy
with the building on other counts; it

Architect Howard Glazer, right, who designed the new
headquarters of the Western States Regional Council
No. Ill, International Woodworkers of America, leaves
front entrance to building with visitor. Rough cedar on
the building’s exterior helps to meet one requirement of
the owners: “as much wood as the code allows.” Roofis
shake, and interior offices are paneled in a variety of
woods.

incorporates “as much wood as the code
would allow,” protects privacy and
confidentiality of business discussions, has
an effective traffic flow and efficient
workspace organization. “It’s exactly what
we wanted,” he said; “if we’d been capable of
designing it, it's what we would have
designed.”

The new building is currently being
monitored by two multi-channel data-
loggers installed by Portland General
Electric to collect information on variables
such as windspeed, solar radiation,
clerestory temperatures; thermal energy
entering and leaving the rock storage, etc.;
however, definitive data on energy savings
is not expected until after a year’s
experience in the building.

LOGAL 1-425
ANNUAL MEETING

The Workers’ Compensation Board came
under strong attack at the Fourth Annual
Delegated Meeting of Local 1-425 IWA, May
10, in Williams Lake.

The Officers’ Report to the meeting
charged that over eighty percent of back
claims were denied by the WCB adjudica-
tors forcing the officers to appeal the cases
to the Boards of Review. In most instances
the Local has been successful in winning
the appeals indicating that the adjudicators
are too rigid in their assessments.

The officers also stated that far too many
claims for other types of injuries had to go
before the WCB commissioners before the
claimants were granted compensation.

These appeals, the officers said, were time
consuming for everybody and the WCB
commissioners should investigate the prob-
lem and take remedial action.

The Report noted that the Local is the
only union in the South Cariboo with
full-time officers and because of this the
officers are highly active in a number of
areas.

President, Harvey Arcand, is the presi-
dent of the Williams Lake New Democratic
Party, an executive member of the Cariboo-
Chilcotin constituency, president of the
South Cariboo Labour Council, a director of
the Canadian Forestry Association in the
area, sits on the B.C. Federation of Labour’s
Unemployment Committee, and is secre-
tary of the Northern Interior Staff Council.

Noel Gooding, financial secretary, is a
director of the Williams Lake and District
Credit Union, and has done excellent work
in getting across the IWA’s point of view to
the people in the area.

The Report was critical of the company
employing the editor of the Local’s news-

paper the “Burner”, for refusing to grant
leave of absence for him to produce the
paper.

The officers stated that they were taking
the case to arbitration unless the company
relented in its position.

Other matters covered in the Report
included: Arbitrations and Board Hearings,
Safety, Organization, Education and last
year’s Negotiations.

The delegates attending the meeting,

’ after approving the Report, dealt with a

number of resolutions, elected delegates to
the various conventions and conferences
and heard from the guest speakers.

First of four speakers was Regional first
vice-president Bob Blanchard, who dis-
cussed the present layoffs in the forest
industry. He told his audience that the
officers were concerned about the situation
but were hopeful that the economy would
pick up in the near future.

He stated that the IWA was resisting
pressure from the companies to have eve-
rybody share a short work week until the
slack period was over. The Union, he said,
had fought long and hard to win its senior-
ity rights and it was not prepared to hand
these rights to management.

It wouldn’t make sense, he stated, to have
members with years of seniority laid off
work two or three days a week while people
with a few weeks or months did their job.

The second speaker was Regional second
vice-president Neil Menard who defended
the Provincial Negotiating Committee and
the settlement it obtained last year. He told
the critics, mainly tradesmen, that the
Negotiating Committee had done a damn
fine job and had won the finest agreement
in the Union’s history.

The Committee, he stated, had fought
hard for every segment of the Union and he
was not prepared to have the tradesmen say
it was a rotten settlement. The tradesmen
over the years, he pointed out, have always
been high on the totem pole in IWA settle-
ments and they should not forget this. And,
he added, the officers are pleased to see this
happen. However, he stated, as an indus-
trial union the IWA must also consider and
fight for the rights of the other members of
the Union.

The last speakers, Larry Dockendorff,
president of Local 1-424, and Jack Kerssens,
president of Local 1-417, spoke about the
mutual problems the three Locals have in
coping with the industry layoffs.

WOMEN REPORT
SEXUAL ABUSE
AT WORKPLACE

Ninety per cent of 203 women who ans-
wered a B.C. Federation of Labour Question-
naire say they have experienced sexual
harassment on the job. The year-long study
was conducted by the federation’s women’s
rights committee and the Vancouver
Women’s Research Centre.

Offensive behaviour, in order of numbers
reported, included derogatory or demeaning
remarks, sexual remarks, touching, display-
ing nude or suggestive pictures of women
where they could be seen by women workers,
staring, supervisors threatening for sexual
favours.

“In the actual accounts that women gave
of incidents that had happened to them, the
common feature was the lack of choice or
control of the situation,” the study said. “In
all cases the behaviour was unwelcomed
and unwanted. The women did not believe
they had done anything to encourage such
behaviour, and indeed, in many cases,

active attempts to discourage it had litle
effect.”

Lumber Worker/May, 1980/5