a. a © Millwright Doug Bragg, now laid off by Ainsworth, stands beside newly installed and abandoned trim saw near infeed to planermill. Workers fight to keep mill open LILLOOET, B.C. — In attempts to maintain employment in this local community, 120 miles north of Hope, IWA - CANADA Local 1-417 has been battling the sawmill closure at Ains- worth Lumber Co. Thirty-seven local union members lost their jobs during the second week of July when the company closed its stud mill line, citing lack of wood supply. The closure caused an outcry from the local union and Lillooet Mayor Joyce Harder. Both parties met the company and contacted the Ministry of Forests in efforts to maintain peace in the community. In April of 1987 Ainsworth, pri- vately owned and operated by a fam- ily of the same name, bought out the milling operations from Evans Forest Products, which operated a veneer plant and dimensional sawmill. The move was supported at the time by the mayor in hopes that jobs would be maintained in the commu- nity of 1,800. Seven months after the takeover, the term of Ainsworth’s 20-year For- est Licence were altered with the gov- ernment. The terms of the revised agreement specified that the com- pany, which has several operations in the Fraser Canyon drybelt, only had to process the timber under licence or an equivalent volume through one of the facilities that it owned. Thus, Ainsworth began shipping logs to its more efficient sawmill in the town of 100 Mile House about 140 kilometres north of Lillooet. Other logs cut in the Lillooet Timber Supply Area have been shipped to other Ains- worth operations in exchange for logs for the remaining veneer plant. Ainsworth has stated that it intends to keep the veneer plant in Lillooet open for the foreseeable future, which will employ about 90 workers. The company claims an additional 20 jobs will be created in expansion of the veneer operation which supplies its plywood plant in Savona and cus- tomers in Washington State. A letter from Ministry of Forests Claude Richmond to company presi- dent David Ainsworth in mid-August stated: “Collectively, the decisions made by your company appear to indicate a disregard for the needs of the community.” The letter also requested the com- pany to “explore all avenues open to you to maintain the economic base for this community.” Richmond ordered the company to undertake a feasibility study examin- ing alternate employment strategies in the Lillooet area to be available to him by mid-September. Acting plant chairman Joe Mack says the company didn’t give its stud mill line a fair shake. The stud line only operated less than 2 months after a modernization program. The botched modernization attempt by Ainsworth saw production figures which were very poor. According to sources inside the mill, Ainsworth had a tough time pumping out 100,000 board feet per shift on the stud line. During the changeover from the dimension mill to the stud line, IWA - CANADA officials constantly tried to persuade the company to maintain the dimension line which, under Evans, produced more lumber with greater efficiency. Rather than produce lumber with the maximum allowable wood recov- ery, Ainsworth went ahead to build the stud line which proved to be a “white elephant.” Since Ainsworth took over the Evans operations, in spite of the ini- tial commitment to maintain employ- ment levels, 115 jobs have been lost. Union chairman Doug Bragg says there is enough lumber in the area to run both the lumber and veneer plants and says that an IWA audit of the company reveals the company was not aggressive enough in bidding for log supplies. The entire incident at Ainsworth spurred the Forest Minister to announce an “internal review” exam- ining how timber licences are awarded and the obligations placed on compa- nies that receive them. HEFFLEY, B.C. — IWA-CANADA Local 1-417 members had to strike for over a month to beat back the compa- ny’s demands for concessions at a tree nursery here. Workers at the Heffley Reforestation Centre struck on July 4 to resist the employer’s demand for a 12% wage cut. Eighteen full-time and twenty-six -time workers were all back on the job by August 13 to complete thin- ning and lifting of seedling pods. As part of a collective agreement, expiring on June 30, 1992, which will see a wage increase of 514%, a special Joint Planning Committee has been The committee will consist of two management and two bargaining unit employees which is set up to “advance the concept of joint employee and nt involvement in decisions that affect the nursery.” oj Prom Nursery workers beat back concessions According to business agent Albert Vanderlaan, labour relations in the plant have been deteriorating in recent years and the new committee can work to overcome some serious problems in the future. Workers have experienced a wide range of health problems related to the use of chemicals in the tree nur- sery. Lack of job descriptions have also made work chores very confused for many union members. Hopefully the committee will work to solve many of these problems. During negotiations mediator Vince Ready was called in by the company to help facilitate the talks. Jack Munro also helped get the par- ties back together by contacting senior company officials at Canfor. The reforestation centre is operated ° IWA-CANADA has three more graduates from the Canadian Labour Con- gress’ Labour College of Canada in Ottawa. Left to right are Paul Hallen of Sask- atchewan Local 1-184, Jeffrey Pazik of Vancouver Local 1-217 and Ken Isomura of New Westminster Local 1-357. The IWA has been a long-time supporter of labour education. by the Canfor Corporation and Tolko Industries Ltd. Seedlings from the nursery are planted throughout the northern and southern interior of British Columbia and in Alberta. LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1990/11