Th thy

ETN Ral

d, left to right, lab

operator

Safety advances made in reman plant

ince the I.W.A. organized
workers at the Green For-
est Lumber Ltd. plant in
Windsor more than three
and a half years ago, there
haye been some big turnarounds.

The union has brought wages
and working eenditicns # le new
initiatives in pro: afe

acMillan Bloedel,
reen Forest’s parent company,
have resulted in less injury and
time off.

The lumber remanufacturing
ae was one of the I.W.A.’s last

+h fs

duced by the previous NDP gov:
ment of Bob Rae) were in ee ae
we may not have certified the plant,”

eeid proce! 500. President Bruce

mune mployees were chads
promises by the

employer eran the I.W.A. came

along broke most of those

Peri vesr!

In the 1995,

summer of wien

$1.50 over three years. The top wage
E will be be over $18.00/hr.by rae ai of
a
the eS negotiated
ved vacations including a
cote TLAtAtOny. holiday, better
seniority provisions, a safety shoe
allowance and the See ean of

ees in the bargaining uni

When i
of Mi a Hoes was elected in June
of 1995, one ot the first things it did

em) loyees eee union oa
“It was a good thing that those
automatic certification laws (intro-

has Been “Since MB came in, safety

7G part of Green Forest’s neat:
Safe-Efficient-Program,” the
bers of the joint occupational health
and safety committee went through

pore all the workers os how to
prove the health a safety
aspects of the operation. Hy necked

organizer Mi ike Hunter went to wor i Be BBY ebees ailing he the col-
step,”
ifi a anes said Local 500 b pacivese ‘agent pad aoe
day seaedl Marques, who headed the e the workforce had been
auton from repetitive atcate
we Hn W.A.,” pad Eatey Weber. is in Windsor, wrists, elbow:
union, where the pe Bee automakers, and shoulders and backs) the work:
it one been a good b Ford, Chrysler and General Motors ers began to shift their job rotation.
for our local.” have large plants and there are Now zack ae of worke rs | has
7 in the plant have climbed nearby auto
from a low of $8.00/hr. for an (entry. some of the 1 tati
evel fob in 1995 to over $11.00 were that they dy has a problem
today. A three year collective agree- over 220. pore ves joining a union. with their ee elbow or back, they
gee ieienedy in 1997, guaranteed The Canadian

an across-the-board increase of

sent over, 20,000 workers in the
Winc area.

halt to overcome is those
expectations, which are largely cre-
ated in the media,” said Marques.
AWG have spent a fair Comtgieiny got

specially iets a
ti aay

ars and does not get you every-
thing. right, away. I thi nk the mem-

Plant chairman Glen Redmond,

with chief steward Ray Gir: and
petpTee ry-treasurer eure Nichols
told t e Lumberworker that the
W.A. after
the employer broke promises to
improve the workplace.

said Brother ‘Redmond. eaney ine

wanted to filla
Today, Redmond and Marques
a real turn-
around by the employer in terms of
ocgupati ional health and safe’
“Prior to MacMillan Bloedel tak-
ing over it in 1996 there used to be

other later,” said

Continued on page twenty

© Fixi hai: i scram-
bler are (1. to r.) millwrights Joe
‘kham and Richard ene.

Mar! Duch