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MAY, 1980

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ISSN 0049-7371

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Vol. XLVIII No. 5 VANCOUVER, B.C. E>?

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WOOD WASTE
BY FOREST FIRMS

The IWA Regional Executive Board,
meeting in Vancouver May 14, expressed in
a news release its very real concern over the
ludicrous situation which is currently
taking place in the forest industry.

Spokesman for the Board, president Jack
Munro, cited examples for the Union’s
concern, such as the opening up the export
of logs and/or chips, which is, in effect, an
export of IWA members jobs.

Munro continued that the IWA’s member
on the Log Export Committee was the only
person to vote in opposition to the expand-
ing export of logs.

At the same time chips are being exported
from the facilities on the North Shore, fir
peeler logs and sawlogs are being fed into
chippers, and worse than that, lumber that
has been strapped for shipment is being
unstrapped and fed into chippers. This is a
disgrace and there should be an immediate
stoppage to all exports of raw materials.

In view of these deplorable circumstan-
ces, the IWA has called upon the Provincial
Government to immediately conduct a
full-scale investigation under the Public
Inquiries Act into timber utilization in B.C.
with subpoena powers to make the Inquiry
effective.

Munro added that the people of the
Province should be concerned about the
misuse of our trees that have taken many
years to grow and that the trees deserve
better treatment than to be made into chips.
Chips should be made from the waste
products not prime timber, he stated.

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PERMIT No. 2075

Third Troisi

., Vancouver, B.C.

RETURN REQUESTED

THE LUMBER WORKER
2859 Commercial Dr.

Pictures above were shown to Forest Minister Tom
Waterland to prove IWA charges that B.C. sawmills are
wasting prime fir logs by processing them into chips
because of the current high price of chips and the

CONGRESS TO AID
STRIKING MILL WORKERS

Approximately one hundred members of
the Lumber and Sawmill Workers Union
along with their wives and children are now
in the twenty-third month of strike for sur-
vival against the giant Boise-Cascade com-
pany in Fort Frances, Ontario.

Originally three hundred and sixty
members at Kenora and Fort Frances struck
when the company attempted to force them
to buy their own equipment and sub-
contract the work as owner-operators.

Some of the equipment, such as skidders,
cost up to fifty thousand dollars new and
have to be replaced every few years. The
company also demanded that the employees
provide their own power saws, trucks and
gasoline storage tanks.

The employees would also be compelled to
do their own repairing and maintenance
work on their own time. Working a five-day
week, this would allow them only one half
day at home with their families.

When the employees rejected the
company’s proposal and struck, the Ontario
police moved in and for the past twenty-
three months have been harassing the
strikers and their families.

This harassment, which involved
repeatedly searching homes and cars of the
strikers, questioning the children about
their parents, giving pickets the choice of
going to jail or staying off the picket lines,
and allowing the company to use goon
squads and scabs, became so severe that the
majority of the strikers sought work
elsewhere.

However, the company can’t move the
one hundred strikers at Fort Frances. Police
brutality and threats of jail have not
deterred them. Even police assaults on their
wives has only made them more determined
than ever to win the strike.

It is estimated that the two hundred
Ontario Provincial Police used to attempt to
break the strike has cost Ontario taxpayers
four million dollars in extra costs.

The strikers and their families have been
aided by the Canadian labour Congress and
its affiliates. Unions have provided

depressed lumber market. The cants shown in the
pictures measure approximately 25 inches by 30 inches

across and are 30 feet in length.
Pictures by Marvin Rasmussen

financial help through adopting a family
and attending to their financial needs. The
Congress has also pressed the Ontario
government to force the company to come to
terms but with little results.

Now the labour movement is going to take
more drastic action. A resolution submitted
to the recent CLC convention and which
was unanimously approved, called for a
Canada-wide campaign to stop all
movement of wood to Boise-Cascade mills
and also to step up the financial assistance
to the strikers.

The Congress is now preparing an
effective strategy to carry out the intent of
the resolution. Observers predict that sucha
campaign is bound to bring the company to
heel in short order and end the strike in a
victory for the employees.

MUNRO ELECTED
GENERAL VICE-PRESIDENT

Regional president Jack Munro was
elected one of the six general vice-
presidents of the Canadian Labour

Congress at the recent CLC convention
in Winnipeg.