¢ Outside the Unisource warehouse are plant chair Ernie Drul (1.) and

part time service representative Chris Monk.

Local 830

Continued from page thirteen

manufacturer. This operation, estab- lished in the late 1940’s, was pur- chased in 1960 by Consolidated Bathurst Containers. MBI was formed in the early 1980’s by a merger of the corrugated container divisions of Consolidated Bathurst and MacMillan Bloedel. Stone Con- tainers of Chicago bought all of the Consolidated Bathurst holdings and, this year, bought out MacMil- lan Bloedel’s interest in MBI, and has now entered into a merger agree- ment with Jefferson Smurfit Corpo- ration, a Dublin, Ireland based com- pany. This operation has gone from a small locally-owned Canadian business to part of an international non-Canadian empire. With all the buyouts and mergers, members at the plant are left wondering and unsure of their future.

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° At the MBI operation posing by a

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Local 830’s vice-president and plant chairperson Paul Groleau tells the Lumberworker that “we’ve had quite a history of mergers and takeovers and survived for the past 70 years. Hopefully, we'll be around for another 50 years and the only difference will be another name change. The plant has continuously improved its product and maintains its market share and we are busier than ever.”

At Unisource there are 20 union members employed. Five of them are truck drivers while the rest are employed in the new warehouse.

Plant chair Ernie Drul says that since Unisource took over the for- mer Price-Daxiom in December of 1992, that work has been steady.

“As far as job security goes, I think that everybody feels comfortable at this point but no one knows how long this will carry on,” he adds. “In the long-run I think it (the takeover)

2 colour Ward die-cutter are (1. to r.)

Marcel Vien, Denis Rivard, local fin.-sec. Hugh Geary, and local warden

Larry Fehr.

has worked out well and hopefully it can get better in the years ahead.”

The distribution services the large printing industry in Winnipeg with sheet fed paper stocks.

“If we don’t have it here we have to contact the paper mill to special order mill run sobee says Brother Drul.

The warehouse crew works five days a week on two shifts. The night shift loads trucks on the industrial side of the plant and fills orders for the paper side which are loaded in the morning.

On the industrial side the Robin’s Donuts chain is a major customer as are most hotels, restaurants, and fast food outlets.

“We carry all kinds of products for any client which needs paper and plastic goods,” he adds.

In the future the local is lookin; to expand outside its traditiona areas. At one time, in the early 1980’s it had over 800 members in nine operations, from corrugated to plastic bags to warehouses.

“There is still a good potential to organize out there,” says Chris Monk, a part-time service represen- tative who has been a key 01 and union member for nearly forty years. He agrees with Brother Alexander that the union has to forge ahead, despite labour laws which are stacked against it. In 1997 the provincial government passed Bill 26 which took away automatic certification procedures.

“You can sign up 100% of people that work in a plant and it still has

to a vote,” says Brother Monk. “The employer can also intimidate workers and they have the right to explain their position in regards to union and not have their actions classified as intimidation or coer- cion. They (the employers) do it all the time and get away with it.”

The labour bill also demands that unions reveal all its finances pub- licly, including salaries of represen- tatives and all financial statements.

“It’s just a draconian, anti-union law that is in place,” he adds.

Sa

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¢ Local 700 member Tony Burt on forklift at Hanford Lumber in Rexdale.

Lumber yard strike lasts half day before contract

It was one of the shortest strikes in I.W.A. history. On October 30, less than ten workers at the Han- ford Lumber Ltd. yard in Rexdale, Ontario struck their employer for 2-1/2 hours before contract talks got back on track.

At issue was wage increases and the employer’s demands that the workers start paying 20% of their benefits.

“We can’t believe this one,” said Ron Diotte, President of I.W.A. CANADA Local 700. “The company thought some of our members would cross the picket line but nobody would. We stuck to our position and it was over in less than half a day.”

The employer even got a security guard and video camera set up before the strike began.

“She (company prceident Wendy Rigby) went to all that trouble to make our members buckle. She told our members that under the labour laws they could work,” added Brother Diotte. “Of course nobody would buy what she was saying.”

Talks between the union and the company resumed the day of the strike and the employer agreed to pay all the workers for a full day.

“Basically the boss threw her arms up when she saw that nobody was going to cross our picket line,” said the local union president.

National Safety Director Tom

Lowe was also on hand to give the strikers some “spirited” assistance, said Diotte. ‘

The strike was called following three days of conciliation/mediation from September 27-29.

“Tt was very frustrating to be hung up on the issue of benefit conces- sions,” said Diotte. “We think the employer got herself into a bind because several times, over the years, she would shop from benefit carrier to benefit carrier. i

“Each time she changed carriers was for short term gain. This time when the company went to insur- ance carriers, only two companies answered. Because the employer only was showing a short term com- mittment to carriers, most of the companies she went to would’nt even give quotes.

“Our members were not about to take concessions on benefits. If somebody got sick over the next cou- ple of years, it would have cost them a lot of money,” said Diotte.

In addition to beating back con- cessions, the union negotiated a three year agreement which across- the-board wages increases of 7%.

Hanford is a small lumber yard which specializes in large dimen- sion timbers and dimension lumber. 2 also customs ae orders for con-

ractors and retails building sup- plies to the public. en

14/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1998

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