e Two new jobs created under the N.E.W. program have created some additional
work for Local 1-80 members. Pictured are faller Al Margetish (1) and cat skid-
der operator Barney Edgar.

by Scott Lunny
National Representative

If you ask the average logger or
sawmill worker on the BC Coast what
New and Evolving Work is, you proba-
bly won't get much of a response. But
if you go to Vancouver Island and ask
Pat Kinney, Camp Chairman of the
TimberWest Honeymoon Bay opera-
tion, the response will be quite differ-
ent.

New and Evolving Work (known as
N.E.W.) has been a part of the Coast
Master Agreement for over two years
and to the Honeymoon Bay crew it
has meant over 30 additional jobs and
a better working relationship between
the committee and management.
However, to many other operations,
N.E.W. is no more than some pages at
the back of the collective agreement.

New and Evolving Work is a
process that was negotiated in 1994
industry bargaining. In effect, it got
the parties out of a bargaining dead-
lock over a handful of difficult issues,
which included contracting out, non-
affiliation, alternate shift scheduling
and management flexibility. However,
unlike many other committees set up
to get out of a jam, there are those

from both the industry and union who
believe in the N.E.W. process.

Management at TimberWest Forest
Limited expressed an interest almost
immediately following the conclusion
of negotiations. I.W.A. CANADA Lo-
cal 1-80 expressed a similar interest
and the Honeymoon Bay Pilot Project
was born in the Spring of 1995. A
Joint N.E.W. Committee was estab-
lished in the Honeymoon Bay Opera-
tion and, with the assistance of Forest
Industrial Relations and the I.W.A. Na-
tional, the company and local union
set out to make the process work.

“At first we didn’t know what it all
meant,” recalls Brother Kinney, “but
we knew it was something we could
work with.” +

A year and a half later, a crew that
once numbered 150 boasts up to 220

bargaining unit members. Not all of
these positions came under the New
and Evolving Work process, but many
of them did and there are more in the
works.

“We're still talking about getting our
gravel trucks back,” says Brother Kin-

ney. “It’s a slow process, but we’ve
had some success and were going to
keep at it.”

One of the keys to success for the
Honeymoon Bay Operation is the
commitment from the Company and
the Local Union. Both have put time
and resources into the project and
TimberWest has even hired a full-time
staff person dedicated to New and
Evolving Work.

As with any new initiative, there
have also been some stumbling points
along the way. The biggest of these
was understanding the process and to
some extent this is still a problem.

“We kept asking ourselves ‘what is
new?” recalls Kinney. “It was quite
some time before the light went on
and we realized it isn’t necessarily
new kinds of work, it’s the process
that’s new.”

“The (Joint N.E.W.) Committee un-
derstands this now and is having a
much easier time of it, but it’s still
hard to pass the message on to the
rest of the crew.”

Brother Terry Smith, National Secre-
tary-Treasurer, agrees that understand-
ing the process is one of the biggest
hurdles that needs to be overcome.

“New and Evolving Work is a differ-
ent approach and it’s difficult to ex-
plain that,” says Brother Smith. “No-
body really argues with the concept,
but at the same time they don’t really
understand how it works.”

Other difficulties Brother Smith
sees are lack of trust between man-
agement and union and a general re-
luctance on both sides to give up their
traditional positions and try some-
thing different. These hurdles con-
tribute to what Smith calls a “lack of
momentum” with respect to New and
Evolving Work.

There are a number of other formal
and informal New and Evolving Work
initiatives going on throughout the
Coast. TimberWest has been a leader,
but there are also formal projects in-
volving International Forest Products
Cnterfor) and Locals 1-71 and 1-3567.
As well, Canadian Forest Products

*(Canfor) and Western Forest Products

are cooperating with Local 1-71 ina
project which is being guided by
Brother Dave Rushton, North Island
Employment Coordinator.

“We had some success early on

with Canfor and Western in coopera-
tion with FRBC, but interest seems to
be fading,” says Brother Rushton.
“There is no end to what we can do -
we can’t give up on FRBC and N.E.W.”

With 1997 negotiations rapidly ap-
proaching, Brother Smith hopes that
companies and Local Unions have giv-
en New and Evolving Work a fair
chance.

k: Success or Failure?

For me, I believe in the process and
I look at the success in Honeymoon
Bay and I can’t understand why it
hasn't caught on to a greater extent,
says Brother Smith. “Issues like job
security and management flexibility
aren’t going to go away and if New
and Evolving Work isn’t the answer,
we're going to be faced with finding
another alternative.”

European unions play key
role as ‘social partners’

Although the primary focus was for-
est sector issues, one lasting impres-
sion from meeting with European
trade unionists was the status and in-
put that trade unions in general have
in their national economies. In Hol-
land and Belgium, for example, the
national governments look to and rely
on the trade union movement to deliv-.
er a variety of national programs.

Training, whether it is upgrading for
technicians, trades or production
workers, is, by and large, delivered
through national and local union cen-
tres rather than departments or min-
istries of government. Direct govern-
ment funding to unions to support
their delivery of these services is sub-
stantial and also helps unions provide
a wider range of trade union priorities
such as leadership and shop stewards
training.

More progressive labour laws with-
in Europe have made an enormous
difference in allowing trade unions in
that region to become effective and le-
gitimate “social partners” in their na-
tional economies. Trade union cover-
age within key sectors is far higher
than what exists here in Canada. As
well, the pattern of industry-wide bar-
gaining is far more entrenched in Eu-
rope. This means that unions can typi-
cally devote more of their resources
to expanding services to members
rather than simply fighting prolonged
legal battles just to maintain represen-
tation rights for bargaining units.

The economic integration that has
taken place in Europe, first under the
formation of the European Common
Market and, more recently, the devel-
opment of the European Union, has
reinforced the significance and role of
trade unions in Europe. One of the
terms of this greater economic union
includes measures to protect workers
from the negative impact of job loss if
firms decide to move or consolidate
production facilities within Europe.
Referred to as the Social Charter, this
provision details the establishment of

work councils at any worksite with
more than fifty employees.

The trade union movement has
moved strategically to control these
work councils because of the poten-
tial and influence that these new
structures can have on employment.
issues. In most worksites, unions have
been successful in having activists
from their plant committee system
elected to fill key positions on these
councils.

The one exception to all of these
trends is in the United Kingdom
where seventeen and a half years of
Tory rule have had a detrimental im-
pact on the trade union movement.
Under Margaret Thatcher and contin-
ued under John Major, trade unions in
the U.K. now must fight an enormous
uphill battle just to retain certifica-
tions at any worksite. In effect, much
of the trend in labour laws in the U.K.
have tilted in the direction of right-to-
work arrangements; even though a
union may hold certification for an
operation, being a union member is
not a compulsory condition of em-

ployment.

Although the U.K. is a member of
the European Union, it has opted out
of the Social Charter which further
undermines the opportunity for
unions to gain any measure of securi-
ty. These contrasts in trade union sta-
tus were compelling reminders to all
of the delegates. They could see clear-
ly from the examples in Holland and
Belgium that the potential for expand-
ing trade union representation holds
enormous promise and responsibility.
In marked contrast to that, the situa-
tion in the U.K. reminded delegates
that, ultimately, it is the political di-
rection of government that.has the
greatest impact on workers and, for
that reason, political action must con-
tinue to play a vital role in the long-
term strategy of every union.

- Phillip Legg, Assistant Research
Director

:
i
i
i

e During European tour the I.W.A. entourage met with their international coun-
terparts in Amsterdam, Holland. Sitting are (1. to r.) Local 2693 President Wilf
McIntyre, Ferdinand Van der Assen, Researcher with the Dutch Ministry of
Agriculture, and Local 1-3567 President Dave Tones. Standing are (1. to r.)
Jeroen Hartkamp, Advisor to Centrum Hout; Local 1-405 President Bob Mat-
ters, Harrie Bijen, International Secretary for Bouw-en Houtbond; Robin
Whitehouse, Assistant General Secretary of the IFBWW; I.W.A. National Presi-
dent Gerry Stoney, Local 1-80 President Bill Routley and the I.W.A.'s Assistant

Research Director Phil Legg.

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10/LUMBERWORKER/NOVEMBER, 1996