Pa PL

Say

oes af tis

° Local 500 Business Agent Dennis Byers, right, inspects manufactured home with company representative Bill Wells.

Local 500 making progress

at Quality Homes

things could be a lot better for
workers.
“We're working on it,” said
I.W.A. CANADA Local 500 President
Bruce Weber. “Since we organized
the meee over four years ago, there
has been a little more respect for
workers and a little more equality.”
The plant in question is the Qual-
ity Homes modular home operation
in Mount Forest Ontario, about a two
hour drive northwest of Toronto. A
job at the plant, surrounded by a
farming community, is a valued one.
Jobs are hard to find and the
smployer knows it.

a result, says local union ser-
vice representative Dennis Byers,
the plant’s management has been
less than charming to their employ-
ees. In 1995 national union organiz-
ers Harold Sachs, Mike Hunter and
others preanized the plant to brin;
the workers some dignity an
respect.

“At first it was the type of place
where a worker would be promoted if
the boss liked them. There was a lot
of favouritism in the plant,” said
Byers in an interview with the Lum-
berworker. “Many workers felt that
they were little more than a number
and that the boss was only interested
in the bottom line and little else.”

“We have tried to change that,”

ir: the kind of workplace where

said Brother Weber. “There are now
job classifications in the collective
agreement and we have worked to
bring Wiel Ss and benefits up —
although there is a long way to go.”

The local union negotiated a three
year collective agreement which was
ratified on November 11, 1998. It
achieved across the board wage
increases of 3% in each year. In addi-
tion an education fund was negoti-
ated, a vision care program was
increased to $200 every 2 years anda
safety boot allowance will pay $85
per employee by the third year of the
contract.

The 5,000 square foot plant is a
busy one. With it’s U-shaped assem-
bly line, it can simultaneously pro-
duce 13-14 modular homes at a time.
Each home takes 8-9 days to produce
- to a maximum individual unit
length of 60 feet with a 16 feet width.

The homes are assembled in the
building and then taken to building
sites in sections, set down on founda-
tions, and are bolted together.

A wood frame home is built on a
metal frame floor unit which utilizes
high quality 5/8” tonge and groove

lywood and predrilled lumber to
facilite wiring.

Walls are built on flat table and
then are hoisted into place where
they are wired and drywalled. The
drywall is both glued and affixed

_ Finished modular home components wait for transport to building sites.

per

with screws. The roof, which also
consists of plywood underneath, has
R-40 insulation put into place for
those cold Ontario winters. Asphalt
shingle roofs are stapled and nailed
on. The house contains all the basics
from flooring, to electric wiring, to
plumbing fixtures. The company has
50 standard floor plans to choose
from, which are fully painted and fin-
ished.

_ The company sells the vast major-
ity of its production in Ontario and
moves about half of its sales through
wholesale sales to dealers which put
the homes on their foundations.

According to company representa-
tive Bill Wells the market for modu-
lar homes has become more sophisti-
cated. He said that many customers
“don’t want box houses any more.”

When the Lumberworker visited. ”
the plant in October of last year, it
was given a tour of a luxurious mod-
ular home with a floor plan of 2,760
square feet.

“Our members make a pre-fab
home which is second to none,” said
Brother Byers. “The employer should
realize that their employees are their
most valuable asset and we hope
that will happen over time.”

One way in which that can be done
is to let people advance on an equal
footing in the plant.

“One of the things we want them
to do is train our members in-house
so they can move up the ladder,” said
Byers. “They usually hire people
from outside the plant and stick
them on a job that our members
should be trained for.”

As the employer has been less
than cooperative at the best of times,
the local union has had to take griev-
ances to arbitration.

“It has taken a while to get the
operations managers to adapt to
modern-day thinking as far as labour
relations are concerned,” added
Byers. “The only way it seems we can
deal with these kind of employers is
if we hit them in their pocket book so
they will pay attention.”

Brother Darwin Allen is plant
chairman while other committee
members include John Guerin and
Tom Gidson.

Prior to the collapse of the Japan-
ese housing market in the Spring of
1997,.the National Research Council
of Canada assisted the company in
developing a modular home for the
Japanese market.

It still has hopes that the Japan-
ese market aii improve. Two by
four homes, like those modular ones
which are produced in Canada, are
more earthquake resistant in
Japan.

Zeidler takeover

Continued from page eighteen

DeLeeuw in a Lumberworker inter-
view.

Nine of West Fraser’s ten
sawmills are in B.C., in three I.W.A.
local jurisdictions.

Williams Lake, B.C. Local 1-425
President Wade Fisher, whose local
represents workers at the company’s
planer mill in town and independent.
truckers who haul for West Fraser’s
Quesnel and Williams Lake opera-
tions via agency agreements, told
the Lumberworker that West Fraser
is “a better company to deal with
than they were years ago.”

“If they can operate non-union
they can,” he added. Five times the
union tried to organize the com-
pany’s dimension lumber mill in
Williams Lake and five times it
came up short.

“In Williams Lake they (West
Fraser) piggy-back on the collective
agreements that the I.W.A. has
fought for over the years and have
added some extra benefits,” said
Fisher. “They are a very adept com-
pany at keeping the union out.”

Local 2171 President Darrel Wong
told the Lumberworker that West
Fraser is “one of those hard-nosed
companies to deal with.”

“When they generally make a
decision they don’t move from it,”
said Brother Wong. “You have to be
on your toes working any type of an
arrangement with them.”

“We have found out that it’s who
within the company that you deal
with that can make a difference,” he
added.

The local represents about 160 at

the West Fraser sawmill in Terrace
and workers at.the North Coast
Timber sawmill in Prince Rupert,
which is a joint venture for the com-
pany.

In Prince George Local 1-424, the
only West Fraser operation which is
certified to the I.W.A., out of four
company operations in its jurisdic-
tion, is the Fraser Lake Sawmills
division in Fraser Lake.

In addition to producing dimen-
sion lumber and value-added wood
products, West Fraser owns pulp,
craft paper, newsprint and liner
board operations. It owns the Euro-
can Pulp and Paper operation in
Kitimat, B.C.,
The Quesnel
eee, rn,
pany in Quesnel,
B.C., the Alberta
Newsprint Com-
pany in White-
court, Alberta
and the Ranger
pulp operation
in Slave Lake. It
also owns the
Blue Ridge Lum-
ber operation in
Whitecourt, Al-
berta.

With the takeover of Zeidler,
which is subject to normal regula-
tory approval, West Fraser, acquires
about 500,000 cubic meters of
annual cut, adjacent to its timber
interests in Alberta.

The plywood plant can produce

240 million square foot of plywood at
3/8” thickness.
West Fraser owns Revy Home
Centres Inc., which are the second
largest chain of home improvement
stores in Canada, second only to
Home Depot.

° Bob DeLeeuw

LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1999/19