USW District 3 Director Stephen Hunt is interviewed in Ottawa by StraightGoods.ca about Bill C-300, a private members' bill aimed at making Canadian extraction companies  accountable in foreign operations. Click to view.
	DealwithSteel.ca is a website that supports the USW's BC Interior Wood Council locals in negotiations with BC Forest Industry employers. Union members, members of our communities and the media can keep up to date by visiting the site. Click to view.
	USW District 3 & Wood Council conferences The District 3 and Wood Council Conferences are fast approaching. They will held between November 1-4, 2010 in Saskatoon. Click to view webpage with registration information, conference calls, and hotel and travel info.

27 AUGUST 2010 - Privatizing Potash was a Costly Mistake - by Erin Weir

The greatest tragedy in BHP Billiton's $38.6-billion (U.S.) bid for the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (PCS) is that the Government of Saskatchewan previously sold PCS for just $630 million. This privatization was the worst fiscal decision in the province's history and has been aggravated by subsequent royalty giveaways to private potash companies. PCS was created in 1975 as a provincial Crown corporation. The Saskatchewan government privatized it in 1989, selling all of its shares by 1994. Presumably, the proceeds were deducted from the provincial deficit. Borrowing $630 million at 10 per cent interest, compounded over two decades, would have added $4.2-billion of provincial debt by now. In fact, provincial bond rates have fallen far below 10 per cent since the early 1990s. Also, had PCS shares not been sold, dividend payments to the government would have partly offset interest charges on its additional borrowing. Therefore, $4.2-billion is a very optimistic estimate of privatization's fiscal benefit. The fiscal cost of privatization is the amount that PCS would be worth had it remained a Crown corporation. ... more

27 AUGUST 2010 – Former Health Care Aide Speaks Out Against Poor Care of Residents in Alberta Nursing Care Home

EDMONTON, AB – A former health care aide at the Salem Manor Nursing Home in Leduc, Alberta has spoken out against the poor care of residents at her former workplace. Sixty-one year-old Loretta Raiter, who worked at the nursing home for 27 years, recently joined Alberta NDP leader Brian Mason at a press conference here to let Albertans know what has happened to the residents she helped take care of. Due to cutbacks and short staffing, Raiter told the media that residents do not get the proper care they deserve. According to Raiter: Some health care aides have had to take care of 10-16 residents on an 8-hour shift. Some are left in wet diapers 6-8 hours a day. Other residents have been put back into wet diapers after a bath. Some sit for hours in soiled diapers. Some have been given powdered meal replacements instead of real food. ... more

26 AUGUST 2010 - Steel This Week

BHP PURCHASE OF POTASH CORP WOULD HIT SASKATCHEWAN TAXPAYERS • GLOBAL STEEL PRODUCTION WILL HIT ‘ALL-TIME’ HIGH THIS YEARS, SAYS MEPS • TRAPPED MINERS FOUND ALIVE BUT LIKELY TO REMAIN UNDERGROUND AWHILE • TUMBLING US HOUSING MARKET GIVES SIGN OF ONGOING ECONOMIC TROUBLES ... more

23 AUGUST 2010 - Steelworkers Ratify Agreement With Western Forest Products

BURNABY, BC - United Steelworkers (USW) members have ratified a four-year collective agreement with Western Forest Products. The agreement, retroactive to June 15, 2010, covers some 2,400 Local 1-1937 and 1-85 members at sawmilling and woodlands operations on Vancouver Island, the Mainland Coast and the Haida Gwaii. The agreement provides two-per-cent wage increases in the third and fourth years and new job security provisions in the event of permanent partial closures. All unionized WFP and unionized contractors operations will remain in the USW. The company will grant the union access to non-union worksites for the purposes of organizing.... more