which will hopefully see larger for-
estry crews for MB working on inten-
sive silviculture to enhance future
wood harvests. At present the com-
pany only employs 25-30 workers
doing such work in the entire TFL.
Foxcroft believes that number of full
time jobs should at least be doubled.

Foxcroft says that to get such a 5
year program going, the cooperation
of the federal and provincial govern-
ments are required.

Plant Chairman Dave Steinhauer,
says the committees will all likely
report to a central committee of union
and company reps in the near future.

He says that the committees are a
mecessary process to go through in
order to save jobs, and that MB must
show good will to the Port Alberni
community by doing so.

“MB has got to get out there and
find some markets for the plywood
and other value-added wood prod-
ucts,” says Steinhauer.

“We believe that if we can weather
the storm we will be able to sell
plywood after the recession.”

Just what MB plans to do with the
310,000 cubic meters of wood from
TFL #44 that it feeds into the Alply
mill each year remains to be seen.

Workers at Alply have complained
loudly that when the mill has been
tunning during the 1980's it has been
unable to obtain good quality peeler
logs te help the plant run efficiently.

r grader Bill Pley, a union
Workef for over 38 years at the plant,
feels that MB is taking the money
from Alply and reinvesting it in its
other North American operations.

“The way that this mill is inte-
grated with the other Port Alberni
ons (pulp and paper, lumber)
there is no reason why we can’t make a
ood go of it until we get out of this
Tecession,” says Brother Pley.

Bill Windley of the plant’s shop
Committee laments that there is a
lack of quality old growth logs to run
Alply because MB has ensured that
the price of good peeler logs is beyond
the ability of the mill to purchase.

‘A lot of the problem concerning
log supply is that some of the very
best, ald growth is being canted or cut
Ine ese squares then exported,”
Says Windley. “MB is exporting large

bers that could be manufactured
here to create some jobs in lumber
Temanufacturing and secondary
Manufacturing.” i

Brother Windley says that while
€veryone screams about log exports,
MB'is exporting timbers, cants, and
large dimension custom cuts and

creating a deception of fibre short-
ges while they are shipping out the
€quivalent of raw unprocessed logs.”

The Alply mill has, for decades,
Teceived a great deal of its log supply

© Vat infeed operator Emery Budai (1.) with plant chairman Dave Steinhauer. Over 500 lost jobs are expected in MB operations in

the near future.

from Sproat Lake Division, which has
its log dump across the canal frorn the
mill. For over ten years the company
has fed the mill a diet of sub-standard
peeler and pulp logs.

“They’ve set up their own scenario
for the closure,” says sub-local union
member Josh Dewaal. “MB wants out
of plywood no matter what.”

Meanwhile the logs suitable for
high quality plywood, which would
increase the mills efficiency, have gone
to the company’s Alberni-Pacific mill
or sawmill in Chemainus, on Vancou-
ver Island.

Ina meeting before the Port Alberni
Chamber of Commerce on December
4, BC. Forest Minister Claude Rich-

mond stated that logs produced in the
Port Alberni area should be processed
in that area.

Just how far MB goes remains to be
seen. .

Local president Foxcroft says he’s
skeptical as to whether or not MB will
be forced to process the logs in the
Alberni’s.

© Laying veneer are Ken Fournier (1.) and Hardish Jhali. Despite bright future prospects for high quality fir plywood, MB is giving
up on the plant.

LUMBERWORKER/FEBRUARY, 1991/9