“We are asking the membership for a strong strike vote to send these employers a clear message,” says USW District 3 Director Steve Hunt, the negotiating committee’s chief spokesperson. “We mean business and we will not hesitate to take job action if these employers don’t drop their concessions and seriously address our remaining demands.”

 

Collective agreements with all employers and “me-too” signatories expire on June 15, 2007. Over 8,000 Steelworkers are covered by those contracts.

 

“There’s not much time remaining in negotiations,” adds Hunt. “These employers have to move from their positions and we hope they will very soon.”

 

Negotiations with FIR resume on June 4. The employer association represents some 31 companies that have some 5,000 employees, the largest being Western Forest Products, which employs union members in all five locals.

 

USW Wood Council chairperson Bob Matters, who also anchors the bargaining committee, says the union is fed up with the industry’s refusing to budge on a series of issues –one of the most blatant of which the issue of Hours of Work provision, known as Article V in the collective agreements.

 

The industry says it will not agree to change the infamous 2004 Don Munroe award, which gave employers the right to impose hours of work at will.

 

“This is a very important issue for our members who have been forced to work long, exhaustive and irregular hours at shifts made up by the whim of their employers,” says Matters. “We expect dignity and respect to be returned to our workplaces and one way to do this is by fixing the hours of work provision.”

 

Matters says one of the most aggressive moves by companies their demand to unilaterally sub-divide woodland operations in order to introduce even more contractors. The union has proposed renewal of the “Woodlands Letter of Understanding” with improvements to protect union members’ bargaining unit jobs now and in the future.

 

The Steelworkers also demand language that will require all contractors and sub-contractors to join the union with the new master agreement in place and that new work that is created (i.e. bio energy) be provided to union members. The union is also demanding the contractors be paid so they can cover their obligations under the master agreement and not be squeezed in a race to the bottom.

 

“There are a whole series of other issues that need to be resolved,” says Brother Hunt. “They include issues like training and seniority retention, preferential hiring practices, health and safety issues, severance pay for partial plant or camp closings and employer neutrality in organizing.”

 

“We want the employers to not interfere and keep their nose out of our business when we go into organize but they want no part of such an agreement,” adds Hunt.

 

“There’s little doubt that coastal industry licensees are out to drive their agenda of further de-unionization the forest industry,” says Matters. “They make no bones about it with their concessionary demands.”