Family Responsibility Leave Each member is entitled to up to 5 days of unpaid leave during each employment year for: (a) The care, health or education of a child in the employee’s care or (b) The care or health of any other member of the employee’s immediate family. This leave must be invoked by the member stating to their employer that they need to take some time off for the care, health or education of a child or the care or health of someone in their immediate family (Someone else who lives in the same household). The employer is entitled to know who the person is in relationship to the employee and whether it is care, health or education. With tis information, the employer can determine that a Family Responsibility Leave is appropriate and must be granted. Mem-bers are encouraged to give their employer as much notice as possible. An employer is entitled to reasonable proof, after the leave, that the request for the FRL was valid. Each request for leave is considered to be a day even if only a few hours were required and that a child must be under the age of 19.

Further information can be found by looking at the Interpretation Guidelines Manual, Employment Standards Branch, Ministry of Labour, Government of B.C. ESA Section 52-Family Responsibility Leave.

PULP, PAPER AND WOODWORKERS OF CANADA

FEBRUARY 2012 , VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

   N N  YOUR UNION YOUR VOICE

PROUDLY CANADIAN

Warning - This newsle er is rated “U” (for union). It may contain some material that management

will find offensive. It is produced solely for the entertainment and informa on of union members. If you are management , proceed at your own risk !

FEBRUARY MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS PRINCE GEORGE—ELDER CITIZENS HALL—8 FEB 2012

100 MILE HOUSE—RED ROCK GRILL—DOWNSTAIRS—20 MARCH 2012

Message From Our President Hello to all the members of Local 9

I hope your holidays went great and everyone is trying to keep warm right now. There is a lot going on throughout the local and I hope each of you gets out and involved,. How do we do that you say? The first step is to get out to our general meetings. The next step is to listen and learn what is s going on at each of our 5 certifications. Then it is just a matter of getting involved, be-come a Shop Steward, Safety Captain, or get on a committee to help steer our locals coarse. Most importantly though is to get out to a union meeting and bring a friend. Remember “YOU ARE THE UNION”.

In solidarity

Chuck

PAGE 2 NEWS @ NINE

In the last chapter, we saw the Rank and File Movement for Demo-cratic Action (RFMDA) forming in 1961. Among the demands of the RFMDA’s position paper was the reinstatement of the fired represent-atives: Connolly, Hayes, and Brooks.

Writing in support of the above demand, Angus Macphee says:

The International Executive Board meeting in Glen Falls, New York, voted 9-4 to uphold the firing of Bro. Brooks and refused to discuss Connolly and Hayes.

The fact that Connally [sic] ran for a Vice-President’s position along-with his challenge to Tonelli and the fact that Heyes [sic] supported him are clearly factors in the firings. Our Union is crippled with the malignancy of business unionism. The Glen Falls meeting clearly reveals this. As to Bro. Brooks, he was hired to advise and direct. This he did, at times in opposition to elected or appointed representatives. For this he has been called disloyal. That he has not been heard is the crime of disloyalty laid by the same men of Glen Falls. Glen Falls, New York, was the location of the International’s head office.

Angus was speaking for the vast majority of active International Un-ionists in BC. Writing with equal clarity and conviction was Orville Braaten. In mid 1961 Orville asked some intriguing questions. For example, why did the International buy the certification of a converting local in Chicago? Local 415, Chicago, a local within the Printing Specialties Union at the time, was paid $25,000 to join the International. It be-came Local 415 of the International even though a Local 415 already existed. Where did the $25,000 go? In short order, they left the Inter-national and joined somebody else. More so, why was a certain An-thony Barbaccia from Local 679 in New York City paid $100 per week by Tonelli to stay away from Local 679? What hold did he have on Tonelli? These various activities prompted the BC brothers to ask pointed questions. These activities also enhanced the attraction of the RFMDA.

In the midst of all this, a seemingly insignificant event occurred in mid ’61. Local 795 of the United Paper Makers and Paper Workers Union (UPPU) affiliated to the Western Pulp and Paper Council. The work-ers from Castlegar were becoming dissatisfied. Led by, among oth-ers, Bro. Evan Moore, they wanted action on several levels. One particular contentious issue was seniority. A new seniority list, exhibited by the company and agreed to by UPPU International repre-sentatives (note: not the International Pulp Sulphite), was amazing indeed. Any union activists calling for change – there were several – found themselves at the bottom of the seniority lists. Hot on the heels of joining the Western Pulp and Paper Council came a decertification petition, calling for the expulsion of UPPU Local 795. About 70 pecent

of the workers supported de-certification. Castlegar’s struggle towards Canadian unionism and local autonomy was on its way. We’ll catch up to it later. Meanwhile, back on the coast, the RFMDA had evolved as a strong challenge to the power base of the men from Glen Falls. Its demands for democratic action, new voting systems and the like spelled doom to Tonelli and his cohorts. So, they (Tonelli and crew) resorted to what they knew best: more lies and deceit. They published (anonymously, of course) a 12-page bulletin called “Truth.” It was sent to all International members and, essentially, challenged the RFMDA, the Western Pulp and Paper Worker (predecessor to our Leaflet), and anyone who asked for the reinstatement of Connolly, Hayes and Brooks. Put clearly, it red-baited (accused of being communism) all of the above and held a special place for Angus Macphee, whom it called a liar and a man about to plot the dissolvement of democracy in Cana-da.

Macphee, Braaten, and McCormack were quick in their critique. All called attention to the falseness of unsigned and unsponsored arti-cles. Angus, especially, was quite eloquent: To a serious adherent of the trade-union cause, the 12-page publica-tion is a tragic thing. It embodies all that is rotten and reactionary in current literature. From its flag-emblazoned masthead to its promise of more to come, its writing dwells in the journalistic mire of the typical ‘Confidential’. Its insinuating slanders are a fearful reminder of the McCarthy press. It could be the work of the Klan, American Firsters, or the Pinkertons. It is boss writing of the most insidious kind. Its ap-peal can only be to the ignorant or misled. ‘Truth’ does not mention that Burke, whom it eulogizes, opposed all three discharges. It made no mention of Tonelli paying off Barbaccia at $100 per week. It falsely states that the ‘New York Post,’ which first exposed the above bribe, retracted. It offers no defence against the charges made by Connolly and Hayes. It does not support an impartial investigation of these charges. It does not discuss the program of the RFMDA on its merits. It offers no program. It represents the intellectual and moral poverty of business unionism. It parades this poverty in all its bigotry, ignorance and corruption. This is the dishonesty of the ‘American Way’ in capsule form and close to home. This is not the Teamsters union but the Pulp Sulphite. While it wasn’t unusual in 1961 for Angus and Orville to go into the bear pit and battle with anyone, new voices emerged as more locals reported. Gordon Wickham, Local 695 (8), soundly condemned the “Truth” article and, more so, Reg. Ginn, Local 494 (3). Reg., who knew Angus, in fact worked in Prince Rupert prior to Woodfibre, point-ed out that, sure, Angus is a dedicated socialist and true unionist. It is those who fear the Anguses of the world who have need to red-bait. They have something to hide. He ends his piece by a Jean Dixon like

prediction:“A majority of our members would like to see the Interna-tional in our name supplanted by National. Much more of this abusive,

stomach-souring trash could greatly swell those ranks.” In every adventure, there are those who participate and those who dissent. The RFMDA and the move to Canadiana was no different than any other such adventure. Notably in dissent was Reno Biasutti, Local 76. Reno supported the International in all its endeavours. Coming back from a European trip, he stopped in New York City and went to the International offices in Fort Edward. There he met with Tonneli and others. Upon returning home, Reno was very clear in his beliefs. He had personally asked Tonelli if there was something afoul. Tonelli had answered him that nothing was, and that was good enough for Reno. Two others of note who were emerging in Ocean Falls, replacing Pemberton and McCormack, were Peter Marshall and Bill Smalley. Both preached caution and maintaining an international approach. McCormack perceived himself a communist, as he also perceived others to be. He, in the end, supported international unionism. Nation-alism smacked of fascism to him. His last words of note were the dis-appointment he felt in the move to Canadian autonomy. One Big Un-ion was his goal. Fred Wood, Local 742, Campbell River, also preached caution and stood on side with Biasutti and Marshall. So, in early 1962, there was division in the International, as professed by thRFMDA; division within the Western Pulp and Paper Council, as professed by the Macphee/Braaten versus Biasutti/Wood ideologies; and Castlegar had jumped ranks. The chaos in Castlegar arose over how union certification occurred in the first place. While the mill was being built, construction crews were approached by the UPPU. People staying on after opening, which was sometimes the case, were signed up to the UPPU.

The International Pulp Sulphite Union didn’t move on the Castlegar workers until the mill was up and running. They expected automatic

(Continued on page 5)

History Of The PPWC

Our office secretary, Julie Ross can usually contact an executive member to help you with any work related issues. If you don’t know who to talk to, she can help you with that too.

Can’t make it in, send an e-mail ppwc.nine@shawcable.com

All members are reminded to keep the union office in-formed if you move or if your union death benefit beneficiary is to be changed.

Office hours are:

Monday to Friday 8:30 am—5:30 pm Closed for lunch 12:30—1:30 pm

UNION OFFICE

Employee Assistance Programs

EFAP CONTACTS Ainsworth 1-800-668-2055 CANFOR 563-0665 CHEMTRADE 1-877-630-6701 Pacific Bio 1-800-481-5511

PAGE 3 FEBRUARY 2012 , VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1

Ainsworth 2011

General Meeting

Dates

March 20 April 17 May 15 June 19 July17

August 21 September 18

October 16 November 20 December 18

Red-Rock Grill downstairs

7:00 pm

Prince George 2011

General Meeting Dates

————————

February 8 March 14 April 11 May 9

June 13 July 11

August 8 September 12

October 10 November 14 December 12

———————— PG Elder Citizens’

Rec Centre

7:30 pm

Prince George 2011 Executive Meeting Date February 7-21 March 13-27 April10-24 May8-22 June 12-26 July 10-24 August 7-21 September 11-25 October 9-23 November 13-27 December 11

Downstairs

Union Office

1921 Third avenue

Congratulations to the Jacket Winners Prince George December membership meeting— Dan Aviss January membership meeting— Chuck Fillion

Ainsworth December Plant Meeting—Joe January Plant Meeting— Darwin Payette

UNBC Bursaries deadline is March 1,2012 Feb 07 and 21, 2012 Executive Meetings P.G

Feb 08, 2012 General Meeting P.G Mar 13 and 27, 2012 Executive Meetings P.G

Mar 14, 2012 General Meeting P.G Mar 20, 2012 General Meeting Ainsworth

1921 Third Avenue Prince George, B.C.

V2M 1G6 Phone: (250) 563-5670

Fax: (250) 563-2637

PULP, PAPER AND WOODWORKERS OF CANADA

LOCAL 9

THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE SOLEY THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE AUTHOR. THEY DO NOT FORM LOCAL

OR NATIONAL POLICIES OR PROCEDURES CLIP ART PROVIDED BY CALM

*** RON RICHARDSON—EDITOR

W E’ R E O N T H E W EB www.ppwclocal9.com

Calendar of Events

PAGE 4

PPWC BYLAWS Article VII-Meetings

Section A: Regular membership meetings shall be held at least once monthly.

Section E: Regular membership meetings shall be held on the second Wednesday of each month (except under unusual circumstances) beginning at 7:30pm and ending at 10:00pm. Meetings may be extended beyond 10:00pm by a majority vote of the members present.

Section I: New members are required to attend a regular general meeting within 90 days of the commencement of their employment.

Page 5

Regarding a CPLP Grievance: This grievance states a violation of Supplemental Agreement Article XXXIV, Section 13 “Supplementary Floating Holidays”.

After further review of the language in the Supplemental Agreement, there is not a require-ment to top up a supplementary floater from the minimum 8 hours to a full 10 hour shift.

In this case, the employee should not have been required to use 2 hours of banked overtime to top up nhis floater to a complete 10 hour shift.

Joe Garon, Chief Shop Steward

certification. It was a pulp mill. They were astonished to find a certification in place. Dissatisfaction soongrew to the boil-over stage. UPPU Local 795, Castlegar, was de-certified and became International Pulp Sulphite Local 842. It’s important to note this was not a raid. Raiding was frowned upon big time. The workers in Castlegar had effected this all by themselves. The International’s only compliance had been the granting of a charter applied for. Castlegar was now solidly in the ranks of the Western Pulp and Paper Council and solidly in the ranks of the RFMDA. Local 842 entered negotiations in late March of ’62. Committee members were Haviland, Besso, McFadgean, and Sorge. Trouble was in the air, especially in the form of the AFL-CIO. On appeal from the UPPU to the affiliate body (AFL), it determined that Local 842 was indeed the result of a raid. Under the no-raid agreement, it could not exist. In effect, UPPU Local 795 was reinstated. Again, Orville, in his paper, ad-monished the AFL for the ruling, saying it disregards Canadians and, more so, the workers in Castlegar, who have voted en masse to leave the UPPU. In the meantime, Local 842 had negotiated a first contract, which the mem-bers had accepted. The term of the contract is interesting. It spanned a 7½-month time frame. The contract had also clarified and successfully dealt with issues at odds with the UPPU attempt at contract resolutions. The AFL order to the workers in Castlegar was the final insult. They were never going back to the UPPU. If they couldn’t be International Local 842, then they would be Local 1 of the Canadian Pulp and Paperworkers Union. In June of 1962, that is what they became and forever after changed the face of unionism in the province.

Stay tuned as CHAPTER 5 continues with the History of the PPWC in the next issue of News@ Nine

The History of PPWC was written by PPWC Local 8 member, Jimmy White in the late 90’s. Brother White was the National First Vice President of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada and is now retired.

His contribution and the historical value of this information to the membership is valued.

(Continued from page 2)

Letter from the Editor

Well welcome to 2012. It is the 50th PPWC convention and what great reason to celebrate.50 years for a union that works for its members. This is going to be a year of negotiations and celebrations, this is the year for all you members of CPLP& Chemtrade to come together and negotiate a contract that will be fair for you to work under for the term set.

This year is also going to be difficult for all labor unions, as most of you have heard John Rustad has decided that it is a good idea makes all unions more transparent with M-210 Workers’ Dues Transparency and Rights Act, which means that he does not want any labor union to be able to spend money on anything. This will include any money that for donations to charities and bursaries for any schools, also we will not be able to have picnics, golf tournaments and Christmas dances.

Well I thank you for letting me carry on, I plan on doing this in every issue from now on. If you have issues that you would like me to com-ment on just let me know.

Ron Richardson Editor News@Nine

Population Myth

Editor:

One of the claims that the Christy Clark Liberals keep repeating is that, when the NDP was in government during the 1990s, “people were leaving B.C. in droves.” Is this claim true or is it just more Liberal hype? Let’s look at the facts which are readily available from BC Stats. The reality is that the B.C. population actually rose (year over year) during the 90s and significantly more so than under the Liberals over the last 10 years. From 1991-2000, under the NDP, the B.C. population rose by 665,000 (an almost 20 per cent increase). However, from 2001-2010, under the Liberals, the B.C. population rose by just 455,000 (about an 11 per cent increase). Now, of course, the Liberals like to point with glee to the years 1998 to 2001 when just over 50,000 more people moved to other provinces than came to B.C. But to put this outflow in context, we need to look at the global econom-ic picture of that time. In 1997/1998, the world was hit by the Asian Financial Crisis and B.C. was impacted particularly hard because of our reliance on exports to Asia/Japan – much more so than the rest of Canada. That’s why the overall Canadian econo-my was healthier than B.C.’s. In B.C., exports dropped by almost half from January 1997 to January 1998. Resource prices began to decline, tourism was hit hard and jobs were lost. B.C. weathered the storm, but because other provinces were less reliant on the Asian market, they continued to perform much better. Hence, we saw people moving to other provinces. If the B.C. Liberals want to blame the NDP for the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/1998, then it logically follows that the Liberals must be prepared to accept blame for Lehman Brothers going bankrupt and the financial crisis of 2008. Cutting through the hype, on a yearly average, figures show that, from 1991 to 2000 when the NDP was in office, many more people were coming to B.C. from other provinces than were leaving. Indeed, averaged out, net positive migration from other provinces was actually more than twice as high under the NDP then under the B.C. Liberals. Despite all these facts, the Liberals keep repeating the myth that “people were leaving in droves during the 1990s”. In propagating such myths, they want to cover up their own questionable economic record over the last 10 years. John Ball Prince George

Page 6

Shift Relief Solutions Committee

This is to inform the general membership of PPWC local 9 how the current maintenance shift relief policy dated March 2011 is affecting our mem-bers.

A shift relief worker can and has been forced to work 8 twelve- hour shifts in a row with no overtime pay.

The term shift relief worker is not covered in the contract under a Day worker or a Tour worker. It is made up term that disad-vantages our membership

There is no set schedule for a shift relief worker.

The policy of averaging a shift relief worker’s hours over 6 weeks is below the Labour Standards Act for averaging agreements. The act (located under section 37 in the Employment Standards Act) is to cover full time tour workers only and must specify a work schedule for each day covered by the agreement. A shift relief worker is currently required to work as a day worker and random twelve-hour tours depending on which shifts they are required to cover. This leads to a disruptive schedule and lifestyle with no compen-sation from the company for doing so ..

Labour Standards states that an employee must get paid overtime after a regular day or after 40 hours per week if not part of an averaging agreement (section35 in the Labour Standards Act).

We would like to see the company change their policy to something that is fair to employees who work these unpredictable schedules and to a level that is at least equal to the Labour Standards of British Columbia.

If you have any questions feel free to contact your executive or shift relief solutions committee.

Grant Dowswell , Joe Garon , Tony Moe , Brett Ter Smitte , Scott Wiskin

Christmas Dance 2011