At the seminars the I.W.A.'s National Organizing Director Lyle Pona and labour lawyer Miriam Gropper (seated right) co-instruct an introductory job steward class.

Camp Jubilee serves as ideal spot for union job steward seminars

ike many other local unions

in W.A. CANADA, Vancou-

ver Local 1-217 holds annual

job steward seminars. This

year the local union decided to hold the seminars at a place without all of the distractions of the big city.

In early June nearly 50 local union members went to Camp Jubilee in the scenic Indian arm. The camp, which is operated as a B.C. labour unity pro- ject, offers an ideal setting for unions and other organizations during times of the year when it is not used for a kid’s summer camp.

Originally founded in 1935, the camp site has operated as a special place where kids can go for a summer break and have a safe place to discov- er the great outdoors. After several years of reconstructing the camp the facilities were reopened in August of last year when the first group of kids went in. This year was the first full summer when kids went in starting through July and August.

The camp is vacant the rest of the year, so Local 1-217 thought it would be a good idea to use the facilities for their job steward seminars. By doing so, labour is helping maintain the camp as it should be used more often. The camp is situated only 15 minutes by boat from the small community of Deep Cove, about 20 km. from Van- couver.

Camp Jubilee offers a great outdoor experience for youngsters with safe and secure facilities that can be en- joyed in one of the Lower Mainland’s most scenic areas.

The camp offers a full array of ac- tivities including fishing, crabbing, wind surfing, scuba diving, sea kayak- ing, beach combing, sailing, water ski- ing, inner tubing, and outdoor camp- ing. There is also a rope course with cable between trees other activities such as hiking wildlife observation. In the vicinity there are sea otters, deer, raccoons, black bears, eagles and oth- er birds.

“Camp Jubilee has some great facil- ities for holding meetings,” says Gary Kobayashi, president of Local 1-217. “We had an officers’ meeting and de- cided to try out the facilities for this year’s job steward seminars and everything worked out very well. I'd recommend the facilities to other lo- cals in the LW.A. and in other unions as well.”

Brother Kobayashi says that by holding the seminars in an isolated lo- cation like Camp Jubilee the local is spending a little bit more money that it normally would but it is likely get- ting more “bang for the buck.”

The local has sent questionnaires out to the participants to see what they think of the weekend sessions at the camp. So far the feedback has been positive.

Gordie McRae, first vice president of Local 1-217 says that unions should continue to support the Camp and can do so by reserving its facilities to hold conferences and events where union members can congregate without the distractions that are found in the city.

“By holding our seminar at the camp; we had the complete, undivid- ed attention of the participants for two days,” says Brother McRae. “We got more done in an atmosphere where the Brothers and Sisters got a chance to talk and mix more and find out what is going on in each others’ operations. It was an excellent chance

e The tranquil outdoor setting lends classes provided.

to build solidarity and increase com- munication between members.”

“In our local we have people from a tree nursery, a kitchen cabinet opera- tion, remanufacturing, in addition to the sawmills and logging operations. We have quite a cross-section of peo- ple.”

Two groups of workers were invited for the seminars. There were classes for new jobs stewards and a more ad- vanced class for advanced stewards.

“These job stewards are the local union’s eyes and ears,” adds Brother McRae. “We have to see to it that they are prepared to handle whatever problems come up in their opera- tions.”

The beginners course was instruct- ed by National Organizing Director Lyle Pona who also set up the partici- pation of Sister Marie De Carre, a rep- resentative with Hotel Restaurant Culinary Employees and Bartenders Local 40, who instructed the advanced class. In addition, labour lawyer Miri- am Gropper was in attendance and ro-

tated between classes, giving some perspective on labour laws in Columbia.

Classes began on a Friday morning and concluded on a Saturday after- noon.

Local union member Steve Dresch- er, from Westcoast Cellufibre said he has been to other job steward classes in the past but feels the seminars at Camp Jubilee were more effective be- cause the atmosphere was more con- ducive to learning. ®@

“Everybody is present and account ed for and after the classes are fin- ished all we have to do is talk with each other. People look at their notes after the classes. There’s no television to watch so we sit around and com- pare notes and get to know each other more.”

The members were well fed too. Dinner on the Friday night featured roast beef for a modest price of $10.00 per member. Breakfast in the camp goes for $6.00 and lunch is $7.00 per head. An additional $15.00 per mem- ber is charged for overnight accom- modation in small bunk bed cabins with washroom facilities.

The camp’s cook is Teresa Binka, who does an excellent job in seeing that the guests are fully fed. She is ihe® wife of camp watchman and attendant Bob Binka who is a Local 1-217 mem- ber employed at the Tolko Industries Inlet Cedar sawmill in North Vancou- ver. The Binkas live in a house at the camp with their two teenage sons. Both work very hard to keep the camp in good repair all year round.

Last year the provincial NDP gov- ernment donated $350,000 dollars from a B.C. 21 grant to complete the camp. After several years of large fundraising efforts by B.C. Federation of Labour affiliates couple with corpo- rate donations, the camp still lacked funding to complete the kitchen facili- ties until MLA Glen Clark, Minister of Employment and Investment, provid- ed the grant money.

During Local 1-217’s stay at Camp Jubilee NDP MLA Dennis Streifel from the Mission/Kent riding dropped in to speak with the members. He spoke on government initiative such as the Forest Renewal B.C., the Em- ployment Standards Act, and the For- est Practices Code. Frank and open discussion were had concerning those topics and the results and ramifica- tions of the recent election results in Ontario were the NDP government of Bob Rae was defeated.

For further information on booking Camp Jubilee, phone Nicole Bierens at Camp Jubilee Administration (Telephone 432- 7529). You can also contact Gordie McRae at I.W.A. CANADA Local 1-217 (Telephone 874-0274) Sor information.

aS : i a itself to more meetings between the job stewards and more concentration on the

12/LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1995