= Joe Hanlon (center) speaks
with striking bushworkers who

Woods crew still out in

bers hit the bricks. Their con-

tract expired on July 31, 2005.
Although Neenah threatened

to close its Terrace Bay paper
mill if the bushworkers didn’t
take major concessions prior

to the sell-off of the mill to

h

wo
Sy
3S.
>
>
Ne)
>
=
a
o

major concessions, the local is
Barus fo effort

le} pany
to force the crew into wage
reductions, gutting of a silvi-
culture agreement, the gutting
of retirement benefits and
workers vacations, etc.
“Buchanan doesn’t care how it
gets the reductions it is asking

g our collective

Geraldton to transfer Neenah’s
license to the workers as a last
ditch alternative to shutdown.

7A
B. {
perl
[> Agreement for firefighters

Local 1-1000 financial secretary Yvon
Rochon is pleased to report that a col-
lective agreement, representing 64 vol-
unteer firefighters, has been signed
with the community of Welland,
Ontario. The five-year deal, which pro-
vides a 3 per cent increase each year,
based on a point system (ie the number
of fires and practices, etc. the volunteers
attend) was ratified by 92.5 per cent.
The union was also able to bargain two
more jobs into the unit. In addition the
union was able to negotiate an overall 33

NEWS FROM

per cent increase to a funding grant in
the first year, while getting three per

ONTARIO

cent increase in all remaining years. Each
firefighter also gets a $5,000 clothing
allowance. [> Two day wobble Local
1-1000 president Michael McCarter is
glad to report that 48 Steelworkers hit
the bricks at the Jackson Builders hard-
wood pallet plant in Iroquois, a commu-
nity on the St. Lawrence Seaway, about a
half hour drive west of Cornwall. A
three-year contract, retroactive to January
1, 2006 was reached, paying across-the-
board increases of 50 cents an hour in
each year. McCarter says that plant chair
Mike Wishers and the crew were “very
solid and held their ground” to win the
strike.

[> Losing trades to the Oil patch
Local 1-207 president Nick Stewart says
that Tolko mills in Slave Lake and High
Level and Weyerhaeuser mills in Drayton
Valley are losing valuable tradespersons
as they take off to work in the booming
Alberta oil patch. “The pressure on our
industry is serious and th

have to wake up real soon and db some-
thing about it,” says Brother Stewart.

details on another Tolko fatality in Alberta.
The Workplace Health and Safety (WHS)
report ieied on March 7, 2006 notes that
while Brother Meporel was s cused bya
log catcher, th

sonable measures by allowing the number
one cut-off system to run without safe-
guards in place to stop workers from
falling off the saw’s conveyor runway. In

dditi

Tolko has rubbed salt on pl
ees by saying they have to quit their cur-
rent jobs at the oul Ose Bang in Slave
Lake if they

OSB plant that is oe built. [>
Report on McDowell fatality
released A repre on He June, 2005 of

giant

Local 1-207 member Greg was
( - /t iad! I£>

found gi /

ties/p df/ER G f) on a eee

heat wGbeie by Local a pe
Nick Stewart as he

Biers were inal ae hous
McDowell locked

es oe was no ror ane over it.
Th site i to the arrival
of WHS. ie WHS did not send us a
copy of the report is a mystery,” says
Brother Stewart. “There is information that
all forest companies and workers in the
prong should be aware of to ga pre-

g for

12 ] JUNE 2006 THE ALLIED WORKER

the future.”