Administrative Assistant Rod Kelty, left, and Marilyn Jones, Secretary.

Woodworkers

The Forest Products sector has not been immune to the current onslaught and lack of economic direction from the Republican-controlled administration. With housing starts at steady high numbers and mortgage rates at or near 40-year lows, lumber and panels prices have remained suppressed for most of the time since our last convention. Increased imports and competition in an industry that continues to consolidate, further contributes to our membership struggles.

In Spring of 2001 the Softwood Lumber countervailing duty agreement with Canada expired, causing a chain of events to take place. Some U.S. lumber companies filed trade action later in 2001, claiming Canada unfairly subsidizes timber sold from Crown-owned lands. Then in May of 2002 a 27.2 percent duty was imposed on all Softwood Lumber imported into the U.S. from Canada.

The IAM along with PACE, IWA-Canada and CEP unions joined forces with the AFL-CIO and the CLC to provide the framework for both a short and long-term solution to the issue of Softwood Lumber imports. We presented our proposal to both governments in January of 2003 which included a request for Labor to be a part of future trade discussion. Needless to say, the trade offices did not see fit to include us in the negotiations that are currently going on, but have included the industry in those talks. Hopefully an agreement is put together that provides a long-term solution on forest products imported from Canada that creates stability for IAM members.

In Fall of 2002 GLR Bill Street accepted a job as the Global Forestry Program Director for the International Federation of Building Woodworkers (IFBWW), with which we are affiliated. This puts us at the center of discussions on Global Forestry issues as the industry moves to a global market both for the finished product and for forest lands. The IAM is committed to ensure timber harvest practices balance economic, social and ecosystems needs in the U.S. and globally.

With the help of the Legislative Department, we remain active on forest issues with the goal of providing good forestry jobs, stable sustainable harvest levels, and maintaining America’s forests’ health. One major success was the recently enacted Healthy Forest Restoration Act that provides the means to keep our national forests healthy through thinning and fuels reduction projects to protect our communities, our environment and our firefighters from the threat of catastrophic fires.

Wherever possible the Department continues to expand coordinated/joint bargaining. We have been successful in negotiating all of our Georgia-Pacific members into a common joint Health and Welfare Trust and are working to negotiate other companies into it. We have been able to maintain fully paid employer health and welfare benefits for all of our members, despite the ever-increasing pressure to shift medical costs to our members.

In October 2002, an arbitration was won in Local Lodge W332, Prescott, Arkansas, that awarded back pay for a violation of a negotiated gain-sharing plan to our members in excess of a million dollars. This like many other successes that our Business Representatives and/or Lodge committees have are due to the commitment of the Woodworker Districts to education through our Winpisinger Education and Technology Center.

All the major contracts on the west coast are set to expire in June 2004. Therefore, due to the timing of this report, results for those negotiations are not available.

In the Summer of 2001, the department met with all Business Representatives of the three Woodworker’s districts and developed an organizing plan for the future. Even though the climate for organizing remains tough, we have been able to increase activity and look for more election wins in the future.

We continue to work closely with other unions with membership in the forest products industry, because with the continuing consolidation within the industry, and the lack of a National Forestry policy to provide an adequate timber supply, their fights are our fights and vice versa.

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