Jee Reena

e Lumber producers, like Finlay Forest Products in MacKenzie, B.C. are sub- ject to limits on the amount of tarrif-free lumber that they can ship to the U.S.

Softwood lumber Continued from page one

scale in both countries and U.S. home-building interests, are putting forward a very effective lobby in Washington.”

Second, Haggard adds, there is a fundamental shift in American pol- itics — working-class to middle- class and rural to urban voters and consumers. Again, these folks have a greater interest in cheap wood then in protected jobs in timber- producing regions.

“Politicians who never would have paid attention in 1992 are sitting up and listening to the free-trade lobby because the voters are forcing them to,” notes Haggard.

Third, while B.C. stumpage costs were low enough to help the U.S. Coalition’s case in the early nineties, they have gone up dramatically since then. Average stumpage on Interior Crown land, for instance, was $25 per cubic metre in 1998, compared to only $7.32 in 1991, according to sta- tistics collected by Price Waterhouse.

“A substantial part of the U.S. Coalition’s legal case was based on its ability to argue there is a subsidy

° Despite “free trade” with the United States, lumber does not enjoy com-

plete tarrif-free access to U.S. lumber customers,

2/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1999

to B.C. companies due to our alleged low stumpage rates. That’s all changed, now, with higher stumpage being collected and overall industry costs having shifted as B.C. moves increasingly to either hard-to-get-at or second-growth wood,” Haggard points out.

“What this means is that we can be cautiously optimistic that we would be on stronger ground than in the past in a potential challenge by the

The union is “guardedly optimistic” that Canada could beat a counterveiling duty imposed by the Americans if faced with another challenge by the U.S. Coalition.

Americans.”

“However,” Haggard adds, “it’s never over ‘till it’s over. We never really know what to expect from the Americans — just when you think you've closed off one line of attack, they come up with something new. Canadian governments, companies and our union will all need to do our homework, keep on building political support and mount a major lobbying effort. We can win this thing, but we

will need to work hard and stay uni- fied.”

Past experience bears this ai

out. In spite of 11 years of fr arrangements between Canada and the U.S., most Canadian lumber does not enjoy tariff-free access to the American market. And in the past 20 _ years, there have been no Jess than — four major efforts by the U.S. Coali- tion, led by major American produc- ers such as Georgia Pacific and Inter- national Paper, to impose restrictions on Canadian competi: tion. In 1982, following a sharp rise in Canadian firms’ U.S. market share, Canada successfully defeated a coun- tervail action. Lumber was subse- quently traded away as part of the free trade negotiations, however.

That led in 1986 to a Canada-U.S. memorandum of understanding (M.0.U.) which imposed a 15 percent export tax on Canada’s lumber exports to the U.S. As a consequence, the B.C. government raised stumpage rates and introduced the comparative-value stumpage system which is still in place in that province.

This did not prevent another coun- tervail action in 1991, which resulted in a finding by the U.S. Commerce department that Canadian lumber is subsidized. But that determination

-was overruled by a North American

Free Trade Agreement panel. In order to try to forestall future trade actions, the federal government of Canada negotiated the current soft- wood lumber agreement. “We've been around the roses on quotas now;

as we can see it is too badly broken,” says Haggard.

- article by Kim Pollock

Study calls attention to forest industry fatalities

The I.W.A., says the recently issued report on work-related fatali- ties (Lost Lives: Work-Related Deaths in B.C., 1989-98) is an important doc- ument document which calls atten- tion to the extremely high number of worker fatalities in the province over the last 10 years. 2

“We think this report, which con- tains real-life anecdotes on how fatal- ities devastate families and individ- uals, is necessary reading for all employers, government officials, trade unions and other stakeholders alike,” said National First Vice Pres- ident Neil Menard.

The report examines 1,482 deaths in the province over the 10 year period, hundreds of which involved workers in the forest industry sector. There were 252 logging deaths and 42 sawmill deaths reported. Other workers in the sector died in truck- ing, road building and boating acci- dents.

“This report shows, that despite all of the programs and all of the initia- tives we have taken over the years, we have not eliminated fatalities and injuries,” said Menard. “All stake- holders in the forest industry and other sectors must look for new work- place accident and disease preven- tion programs.”

During the past few months the union has met with stakeholders from industry, government and labour to examine the possibility of establishing a forest industry safety association in British Columbia. Such associations, which offer acci- dent prevention training programs, already exist in Alberta and Ontario.

“We have to look at the mish-mash of programs that already exist through government and private agencies and assess their effective- ness in preventing fatalities, serious injuries and workplace related dis- eases,” said Menard. “Now we have to decide if an industry association —

one that is jointly created, structured and managed — is the right way to go and if there would be buy-in from stakeholders.”

Menard noted that the WCB report on fatalities offers some suggestions on how to prevent similar accidents but many of these are insufficient.

“Too much of the report puts the emphasis on the individual — through the use of personal protec- tive equipment and personal deci- sion-making,” said Menard. “What’s needed is a holistic approach that leads us to the root causes of acci- dents.”

Over the 10 year period there were

‘252 logging deaths and 42 sawmill

fatalities reported.

Some parts of the report (i.e. “con- trol plans,” “work procedures”) look at accident prevention in this way, leaving personal protective equip- ment as an issue of lesser impor- tance. The union is also complemen- tary of the section of the report on what can be done to prevent work- related deaths.

“We think that it is proper for the WCB to expect and demand Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment as well as call for Investigations,” said Menard. “We have to make sure that the WCB holds non-complying companies’ feet to the fire.”

“Blaming workers for their own deaths and injuries is just a cop-out,” he said. “It is much more important to find the true root causes of work- place accidents.