Leo W. Gerard - United Steelworkers

In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed
the world’s first ban on trade
in illegal wood by amending a
100-year-old statute named the
Lacey Act.
The reform was welcomed by the
USW and the Sierra Club because of the
belief it would increase environmental
protection worldwide and allow USW
employers in the forest and paper industry
to operate on a level playing field
with their international competitors.
Now, the USW and its environmental
ally are gravely concerned over
decisions by federal regulators to grant
special enforcement exemptions for
pulp and paper from the Lacey Act
reforms.
Those exemptions in declaration
requirements threaten to undo the
environmental and economic benefits
to workers and their communities that
were expected to flow from the reform
legislation.
The Lacey Act has long been a
powerful tool for U.S. agencies fighting
wildlife crime but its potential to combat
illegal logging remains untapped.
The ground-breaking changes to the
act ban commerce in illegally sourced
plants and their products, including
timber and items made from wood.
Progress threatened
“Illegal logging threatens a quarter
of century of progress toward sustainable
and responsible harvest of our
natural resources, while exploiting
workers and the environment in foreign
countries,” said International Vice President
Jon Geenen, who is in charge of
national paper industry bargaining for
the USW.
“Our work on the Lacey Act and
our continuing efforts to ensure enforcement
represent yet another step in
safeguarding paperworker jobs in North
America.”
Under the Lacey Act reforms,
importers must declare the country of
origin and the plant species harvested
for their products, an important step in
creating transparency in a previously
unregulated market where consumer
demand has driven deforestation around
the world.
Pulp and paper were included in the
initial drafts of an explicit enforcement
schedule developed by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant
Health Inspection Service, the federal
agency in charge of enforcing the Lacey
Act.
But pulp and paper were pushed out
of the enforcement schedule in subsequent
agency drafts and are now labeled
“under consideration” for inclusion.
Politics seems to be the culprit.
“Fully incorporating all wood products,
including pulp and paper, into the
declaration requirement is essential if
the Lacey Act’s potential is to be fully
realized and global trade in illegallysourced
wood products is to decrease,’’
said Margrete Strand Rangnes, director
of the Sierra Club’s labor, workers’
rights and trade program.
Illegal logging costs
In the United States, illegal logging
makes it impossible for workers and
their employers to successfully compete.
Legitimate timber companies are undercut
on price by illegal loggers who do not
pay fees to their governments or pay the
true market price for the trees they cut.
Many hundreds of workers, including
a significant fraction of the workers
remaining in the coated paper sector, face
harm from plant closings and production
curtailments. The economic effects will
ripple through local economies where
plants are located.
“The USW has seen true devastation
among our members as multiple plants
have closed or reduced production, in
large part because of imports from nations
where illegal logging is a large part
of the timber supply,’’ said Holly Hart,
the USW’s legislative director in Washington,
D.C.
Leaving pulp and paper out of the
enforcement schedule for the declaration
requirement will allow the economic
devastation in the United States caused
by illegal logging to continue without
check, Hart and Strand Rangnes wrote in
a protest letter to the agency.
Environmental damage
Beyond the obvious economic problems,
exempting pulp and paper from
enforcement will fail to help curb the
environmental damage caused by illegal
logging in the countries of origin. An estimated
30 percent of the global warming
pollutants released into the atmosphere
each year are blamed on deforestation.
If imports of illegal logs are to be
curtailed, importers must be held fully
responsible for the materials they import
and for accurately completing the required
declarations.
If the bar of responsibility is set any
lower, less than scrupulous importers will
have a significant window of opportunity
by which to evade compliance.
The USW and the Sierra Club call
for a strong enforcement program with a
predictable schedule for covering imports
of pulp and paper, wood and products
made from wood.
We also support creation of an electronic
filing system for declarations and
an electronic database of covered plants,
including tools to track wood and assess
the risk of illegal wood sourcing within a
supply chain.
The United Steelworkers responded immediately to the horrific earthquake in
Haiti by offering support and solidarity.
Within 24 hours of the Jan. 12 tragedy, International President Leo W. Gerard and
Canadian National Director Ken Neumann announced a $20,000 donation from the
Steelworkers Humanity Fund to assist with emergency aid efforts in the Caribbean
country.
“Many of our sisters and brothers who live and work in the United States, Canada
and the Caribbean have friends and relatives from Haiti. Our hearts and thoughts are
with them during these trying moments,” Gerard said.
“It’s times like these that we are reminded that regardless of the bloodline that
runs through our veins, or the address of the place we call home, we are all family
connected by our common humanity.”
Neumann said the USW pledged continued support, solidarity and prayers to the
people of Haiti and their family and friends around the world. “We will be with them
as they work to overcome this terrible tragedy,” he added.
Founded by the United Steelworkers in 1985 in Canada, the Steelworkers Humanity
Fund is a registered charitable organization. USW members contribute to the fund
through clauses negotiated into collective agreements. In a number of agreements,
matching contributions have been negotiated from employers.
The mandate of the fund is to address issues of hunger and poverty, primarily in
the developing world, through development assistance and emergency aid. The fund
has made numerous donations, including assistance to victims of Hurricane Katrina
in the United States and over $900,000 to Canadian food banks.
For USW members or locals wishing to donate, please send checks made out to
Steelworkers Charitable and Educational Organization to: United Steelworkers, c/o
Vice President (Human Affairs) Fred Redmond, Five Gateway Center, Pittsburgh, PA
15222.
The United Steelworkers Charitable and Education Organization is a 501(c)(3)
charitable organization and contributions are tax deductible.
Steelworkers wishing to donate to the Humanity Fund in Canada can send checks
to: Steelworkers Humanity Fund, 234 Eglinton Ave., East Suite 800, Toronto, Ontario
M4P 1K7. Please note that U.S. donations to the Humanity Fund are accepted but are
not tax deductible.
The TransAfrica Forum, a longtime ally of the union movement, also suggested
donations to two organizations already providing aid on the ground:
Partners in Health (http://www.pih.org/inforesources/news/Haiti_Earthquake.html)
and Doctors Without Borders
(http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/).
Left: Aid worker helps earthquake victim.
Right: Damage to buildings was widespread in Haiti.
30 USW@Work • Winter 2010
USW@Work • Winter 2010 31