LABOUR AND ECONOMY

Learning Institute changes supported by labour leader

Business and labour have gotten together to work with the Liberal government's Innovative Learning Agenda, which was announced in the last federal budget. It is the fed’s intention to see labour and business work together. So in mid June the CLC president Ken Georgetti, the labour co- chair of the Ottawa-based (CLBC) Canadian Labour Business Centre, and Warren Beatty, the business, co-chair, let Federal Labour Minister Jane Stewart know that both sides are ready to move forward to further the goals of train- ing Canadians in the national and global marketplace. Both sides agree that it is time to get a new Canadian Learning Institute to play a leading role in focusing on early adult and workplace learning: and address other issues in the adult workforce including skills upgrad- ing, prior learning assessment and recognition, recognition of creden- tials, and the promotions of continu- ous learning. The CLBC co-chairs say that their Centre is posi- tioned to enable the five key constitiuen- cies (business, \abour, educa- tion, provinces ‘| and territories) to get together <I on the issue of a adult and work- A push for learning place learning and work productively with stake- holders including academics and researchers; sector councils; univer- sities, colleges and training providers; and community organiza- tions and service providers that deal with the public at large, including older workers, Aboriginals, immi- grants and persons with disabilities.

Ken Georgetti

Is the Sun rising in Japan?

New regulations allow more 2 x 4 competition in market

THE JAPANESE MARKET has been in the tank since the spring of 1997 and there are no signs that it will soon return to its former glory.

But some good news broke in mid- June when Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation announced the approval of 2 x 4’s in the building of exterior walls and par- tition walls in fireproof sensitive sites.

Any news is good news for long- suffering lumber exporters in British Columbia. Last year they exported only $1.7 billion worth of lumber

products to Japan — way down from close to $3 billion in the mid-gos. B.C. lumber producers, mainly rep- resented by the Council of Forest Industries, have been lobbying Japanese authorities for decades in attempts to pry open difficult markets. “It's been tough to’ break down those walls,” says [WA national presi- dent Dave Haggard, figuratively speaking. “We really need the Japanese market to recover and any improve-

ment is positive news at this stage.”

Because of the stagnant Japanese economy, foreign lumber and logs that traditionally flowed to lucrative markets have been redirected to the U.S. market, keeping prices low.

Two by four’s are now permitted in three story plus buildings in non fire- rated districts and three storey multi- family units in Japan. That’s a far cry from the mid-7os when they were only seen in two stories or less.

Some experts predict that the new regulations could grow the 2 x 4 mar- ket by five to ten per cent a year, for at least the next several years.

IWA Local 1-80 president Bill Routley, who toured Japan in May of 1999, says that the wider array of Canadian forest products have seen more competition in logs and lumber from producers in other countries in Europe, Scandanavia and Russia, and an increased use of engineered wood products. In addition, Brother Routley noted that Japan is training less car-

PHOTO BY BILL ROUTLEY

= Pictured are traditional Japanese posts, here made from Canadian logs, used in the Japanese housing market.

penters and construction workers and is using pre-cut post and beam con- struction. He says Canadian produc- ers to link directly with Japanese builders to create jobs here in Canada. Routley notes that since the giant Kobe earthquake in ‘95, which result- ed in ruptured gas lines and disas- trous fires, building codes in Japan have come under closer scrutiny. Many houses today, wood ones includ- ed, have springs in their foundation and earthquake sensitive equipment.

Local 1-417 president Joe Davies told The Allied Worker that the union hopes the changes in Japan will help workers at the Slocan Valemount operation, which restarted in mid- May. The mill produces J-grade spe- cialty 2 x 4’s for that market and has applied for a permit to cut high value timber. “The mill is not configured to compete in only the North American dimension lumber market. It needs that incremental market in Japan to remain competitive,” he says.

Sputtering American economy affects us all

CANADA-U.S RELATIONS are often compared to that of elephant and mouse. The elephant doesn't notice the mouse much but we feel every wiggle, mur- mur and well...movement.

And the elephant is restless. The U.S. economy faces severe impacts from a changing world economy.

ABOUT THE ECONOMY BY KIM POLLOCK

The U.S. runs huge trade deficits, one of many advanced capitalist countries that import ever more from foreign manufacturers, especially from China and Southeast Asia. China now produces 40 per cent of all manufactured goods, in the world, due to its extremely low wages and poor working conditions.

The U.S. exports currency to pay for them. As long as bankers and corporations could profitably recycle profits on U.S. stock markets, it wasn'ta problem. But when the stockmarket "bubble" burst, that ended.

The market collapse exposed the crimes of corpo- rate managers desperate to hide sagging profits - reductions averaged 20 percent from 1997 to 2000. The boom had allowed them to keep spending and investing, in spite of falling profits — ironically, often increasing manufacturing capacity in Southeast Asia, further reducing those products, prices, making them even easier to sell!

The bubble's collapse and resulting outflow of short-term, profit-seeking funds also pushed down the U.S. currency internationally. Hence the Canadian dollar's recent surge.

Unlike the U.S., Canada runs trade surpluses, meaning that we export goods worth more than our imports. Higher-than-U.S. interest rates, higher-than- U.S. unemployment levels and the low dollar itself helped discourage purchasers of foreign goods, while the low dollar helped Canadian exporters.

The Loonie is 20 per cent higher against the U.S. dollar than a year ago. We can buy more — but only if we have sufficient purchasing power. And there's the catch: a rising dollar is like upping the price of our exports.

Exported lumber, pulp, petroleum products, wheat, cars all cost more and we export about half what we produce, nearly 90 percent of it to the US.

Soa rising dollar, everything being equal, means an export cut and that's what happened. Canada's exports fell over 3 per cent in a year, led by a 4.4 per cent cut in USS. sales.

Recent price increases for lumber, for instance, help reduce the hit. But in the U.S. a falling dollar is like a generalized wage cut, especially for manufactur- ing workers — able to buy fewer, higher-priced Canadian goods, you'd think they would be more like- ly to buy U.S. firms, protectionist policies.

But workers on both sides of the border are smarter than that. We want to end the softwood lumber impasse so we can cooperate in expanding our mar- kets, not shout across the border as profits and hot money slosh back and forth.

That's why Canadian and American unions joined forces to urge a North American wood-marketing strategy as part of any lumber agreement.

Kim Pollock is the IWA’s Director of Public Policy and Environment

14 | THE ALLIED WORKER AUGUST 2003