On drink, the IWA & West Van's ‘goofy mayor’ n why he got involved with the §WA: “You don’t make a conscious decision of whether you get involved or not. It’s just my nature to try to improve things and help my fellow workers.” Did your fondness for drink ac- tually help you move into the in- ner fold of the IWA?: “In the ‘60s and ’70s it was easy to go into a beer parlor for a meeting. That's where you met people. A lot of workers used to drink beer and we had a good time, but if you don’t control it it gets kind of heavy duty and you switch to hard stuff and then it becomes a problem. | quit drinking in 1984 before it became a serious problem. | also quit smoking. | used to smoke three packs of Sportsman non-filters a day.” On the Carmanah controversy: “The protectionists have gone too far. We’re talking about 7,000 hectares of forest, and that’s a lot of jobs. There has to be a protec- tion zone around the big spruce. We should not be allowed to clear cut any part of the Carmanah, but we should be able to log its smaller openings. We have to do a better job of logging and | think industry understands that.’ Do you have to walk a tightrope between the interests of en- vironmentalists and your own membership? “You can’t live with some of the views of the pro- tectionists because they're nuts. But with people who are truly concerned and understand the in- dustry, then we get along fine.” On relations with the forest in- dustry: “'! think there's a matur- ing going on both in industry and the union. We have to not only say we're going to cooperate on things we agree on but we have to 19 - Sunday, March 11, 1990 - North Shore News INFLUENCE IN HIS OWN WORDS photo Mike Waketletd IWA-CANADA boss Jack Munro: “The most difficult part of my job is desk work. Paper work drives me up the wall. I’m terrible at it.”’ be doing it.’’ ; On the future of the tWA- Canada: ‘We're becoming a hel! of a lot more efficient. We've never produced as much lumber out of this province as we have in the last year, and we're doing it with one-third as many people. As far as unions are concerned, you have to separate B.C. from any logical thing that’s going on. When Vander Zalm came into of- fice he said he was going to set the unions straight, and he overhauled the labor code. He absolutely tilted the scale that even employers said, ‘don’t insist that we use the law in this province.’ That just proves my point that we were not the problem; we ac- cepted no wage increases when Specializing in AMC past models plus Chrysler Jeep Eagle current models ® Renault ° Alliance * Pacers * Concord © Renault RS * Pioneer ® Jeep Cherokee 0 YAS * Eagles Plus we service all other Chrysler makes and models. 980-3431 Vancouver’s #1 Chrysler Jeep Eagle Parts & Service Centre Hours: Mon.-Fri. 8:00am-5:30pm CHRYSLER cota on ese ene times were tough. But the percep- tion out there is you’ve got to hammer unions and then you'll be all right. It seems so basic that it seems stupid to talk about it, but why the hell would a government hammer its own people? Thank goodness Vander Zalm wasn’t able to hammer us.” On things that disturb him: “I'll take a shot at that goofy mayor of ours in West Vancouver. Looking at West Vancouver, especially from the water, really, really upsets me. The developers are destroying so many things that were so great. They’re building these monster homes and big buildings — pigeon holes stuck in- to the side of the God damned mountain. Another thing that bothers me is, as small a majority as it was, the people of West Van- couver voted no to the Twin Towers. Council ignored that and are going ahead with it. It’s a complete disregard for what the people want, to reap and pillage and do whatever they God damn want to.”” What made you decide to write your autobiography? ‘‘Douglas and Mcintyre had bugge ed me fora year. Scott Mcintyre kept talking to me about it, and then he found a good co-author interested in do- ing it, and she made me feel com- fortable. !’m not much of an aca- demic, and | didn’t think | could remember enough. But it worked out well and i'm pleased with it. Bob White (Canadian Auto Workers president) also had an in- fluence on me." On what he does in his spare time: ! love boating. I'd love to go up and bum around the coast. It really takes my mind off things. Heck, you're in your boat about 10 minutes and you’re worried about the pump or something.” — Evelyn Jacob. - COMING SUNDAY, -MARCH 18 FORECAST See the latest in shapes, patterns and textures. Fashion retailers showcase their styles for Spring 1990. A special feature of the North Shore News. THE VOICE OF NORTH AND WEST VANCOUVER SUNDAY - WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY