e National Organizing Director Lyle Pona.

Union’s organizers continue
to get results in past year

In the past fiscal year the union has successfully
continued to bring in new members. At the con-
vention the delegates were informed that since the
last annual meeting, 1301 workers joined the IWA.
Of that total 970 were members from new certifi-
cations actively organized and 331 new members
came into the union voluntarily.

The local getting the most new members is
Prince George, B.C. Local 1-424 with 436 in 19 cer-
tifications. Second place went to Local 1-3567 in
New Westminster with 91 members in five certifi-
cations while third place went to Local 1-1000 in
Ontario which brought in 63 new members.

National Organizing Director Lyle Pona told the
delegates that the union is continuing to expand
into the non-traditional sectors.

“New certifications in all local unions are re-
flecting this now widely accepted source of new
membership,” said Brother Pona. “IWA-CANADA
can now boast of representing workers from many
facets including resources, manufacturing, hospi-
tality, and public service. In turn, workers in all
Sectors can now look to our union for experienced
representation.”

Brother Pona said that in spite of costly legal
battles in front of the labour reations boards in the
provinces of B.C. and Ontario, where the union
has most of its members, most organizing drives
have been aided by fair legislation, especially auto-
matie certification procedures put in by NDP gov-
ernments,

But he warned that those fair labour laws have
become “so distasteful to employers that opposi-
tion parties in Ontario and British Columbia seek-
ing favours from their employer supporters are
now clearly on record to remove automatic certifi-
cation when elected to government.”

“If and when that happen we can expect a re-
turn to the organizing conditions we experienced

Continued on page sixteen

P ivi

° Gordie McRae

° Dave Haggard

Bill Routley ° Darrel Wong

Convention takes firm stand in opposition
to ‘rat unions’ in organized work sites

Delegates to IWA-CANADA’S seventh constitu-
tional convention took special occasion to blast
Macmillan Bloedel and its use of “rat unions” at
the NexGen construction site in Port Alberni. MB’s
new and agressive “open site”and low-bid policy
has got the trade union up in arms.

Work at MB’s pulp and paper operation in Port
Alberni has been done by legitimate Building
Trades unions since 1947. It has never been done
by employer-dominated “rat unions” nor non-
union workers. MB is out to change that.

An emergency resolution to the convention in-
troduced by Port Alberni Local 1-85, Loggers’ Lo-
cal 1-71, and Vancouver Local 1-217 said that the
union is completely and unalterably opposed to
the use of “rat contractors” and that the IWA will
refuse to cooperate with MacMillan Bloedel on op-
erational issues until their policy is reversed.

Dave Haggard, president of Local 1-85 lambast-
ed the “right wing” in B.C. for its agenda of taking
on the Building Trades in the province with its ef-
forts to eliminate organized labour in the construc-
tion industry.

He said that MacMillan Bloedel has followed
this union busting path and has sent directives out
to all of its operations in sawills and pulp mills
that it is going to a low bid process on new con-
struction tenders.

Brother Haggard acknowledged that while there
have been differences between the IWA and the
Buiding Trades in the past, that there should be no
question that MB is trying to break legitimate
unions and that “I don’t believe for one minute
that MacMillan Bloedel can succeed if they take
on all of organized labour in this province.”

“T don’t think that (it is) acceptable in an indus-
try that has been the backbone of the province for
the past 100 godammed years, that we would al-
low a company (MB) that’s building plants in Al-
abama and buying plants in Mexico, and the only
reason they're doing it is so they can get the best
return on their investment,” said Haggard.

“T don’t think that in British Columbia, where
that company got started, and other forest indus-
try companies have started as well, that we should
accept...non-union rat unions in our plants and in
our camps,” added Haggard. “I don’t believe that
we should accept that in British Columbia when
we have spent the last 50 years organizing people
so that (they) can live in a community with some
dignity, can raise a family, buy a home, and live
the way people should live.”

Haggard said that if MB wants the support of or-

ganized labour for issues such as land-use then the
company should respect labour on its concerns.

Gordie McRae of Local 1-217 chastized MB’s
Chief Executive Officer Bob Finlay for his greed in
the faced of very comfortable corporate profits.
Finlay has called for lower stumpage and labour
rates.

“We are going to be facing these dirty rotten rats
in 1995...because of what’s happening in Port Al-
berni,” said Brother McRae. “We can’t let this hap-
pen to erode our good trade union movement
system that we've built long and hard.”

McRae said that the IWA has built the best
sawmills around and and that “we don’t have to
have people coming in here from ‘rat unions’ and
working for $16, $17 an hour, and eroding our col-
lective agreements that we worked long and hard
for.”

Gary Kobayashi, president of Local 1-217, said
that the IWA must support the Building Trades in
their hour of need. z

At convention time nearly 70 of the Building
Trades’ members had been arrested for picketing
TNL “rat union” contractors. He said that the “rat
unions” are a union of convenience which do not
organize workers but rather organize employers.

“Rat unions” allow the employers to set up their
own work schedules up to 54 hours a week with-
out double time. They bargain labourers’ rates
down to $8.00/hour,” said Kobayashi.

“We as an organization...in this resolution are
saying we are not going to put up with your behav-
iour, MacMillan Bloedel. We're not going to coop-
erate with you on land-use issues. We're not going
to cooperate with you on operational issues until
you change your position.”

“We're telling MacMillan Bloedel, quite
frankly....that if they don’t want to become British
Columbians...they should go to Mexico, lock,
stock, and barrel, but leave the trees and the
plants here for us to run.”

Darrel Wong, president of the Loggers’ Local
said that every local union that has an MB opera-
tion should become involved in the campaign and
withdraw from committees with MB.

“Make it clear to everyone in this province
(B.C.) where the IWA is and where each local
union is,” said Brother Wong.

“I will be going back to our operations and ex-
plaining to those crews that the gloves are off,”
said Bill Routley, president of Duncan B.C. Local
1-80. “There’s no more cooperation with that com-

pany.”

e Reading out the Legislative Resolutions were Local 1-417’s Carol Toth and Local 1-71’s Carl Chester.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1994/13