HERE’S no question about the

bad news. In November of 1990

MB announced that it will per-

manently close its 49 year old

Port Alberni (Alply) plywood

plant. And now it’s just a mat-
ter of time before the corporate forest
giant pulls the plug on 350 employees
in the plant.

To add insult to injury MB also
expects future reductions at its
Somass sawmilling Division (dimen-
sion cut cedar) when the “A” mill is
replaced. Also to be effected in the
slash and cut approach that MB is
taking are 90 to 180 jobs at its logging
divisions in the Albernis.

Like many other forest companies
in Canada, MB says poor markets,
high interest rates, and an overvalued
Canadian dollar have brought on the
closure.

The real concern for jobs, of course,
remains with these affected members
of IWA-CANADA Local 1-85, and the
citizens of Port Alberni, a community

8/LUMBERWORKER/FEBRUARY, 1991

of about 23,000 on Vancouver Island.

“We believe that MB has made a
corporate decision to shut Alply divi-
sion,” says Local 1-85 president Earl
Foxcroft. “With nominal investment
we think that the plant would com-
pete with any coastal plywood pro-
ducer in North America.”

MB ploughed over $28 million into
the plant in 1978-1980 to upgrade the
lathe system, chipping system, vats,
and chip conveyor. It also did some
work on its lay up and veneer chipper
lines. But since then it hasn’t put
much money into the mill to compete
in the competitive sanded fir plywood
market. 2

The company claims profits in only
3 of the last 20 years and began
discussion with the union in 1989 to
turn things around in the plant. The
IWA was game but MB stalled its
plans for change — such as purchas-
ing a veneer welder and adding better
chipping facilities to increase prod-
uctivity.

© Left to right, with more than 52 years’ combined experience are Vanda Ethier, Theresa Sperger, Trudi Oscarson, and Janet Dutton.

FIGHTING FOR J

Local I-85 works to preserve
employment as MB prepares to
pull plug on giant plywood mill

Now that the forest industry is in
the worst position it has been in since
1982, MB is trying to get out of fir
plywood completely.

The workers and Local 1-85 took
the November closure announcement
with a certain calmness. After all, the
company had threatened throughout
the 70’s and 80’s to shut the plant
down on numerous occasions. The
November announcement just seemed
like another in a series of possible
closure announcements by the com-
pany.

“The information that we have says
that there will be a good market for
quality, sanded fir plywood in the
future,” says Brother Foxcroft.

In fact the markets for the product.
should be improved in the not too
distant future, according to J. Dou-
glas Smyth, IWA-CANADA’s Research
Director.

In the U.S. Pacific Northwest a
large number of plywood producers
have recently gone out of business.

o@

As a result of mill closures in the
states of Washington and Oregon in
1990, and more recent threats of clo-
sure, more than 1} billion square
board feet of plywood has been taken
off the market. The spotted owl con-
troversy, which has halted the har-
vesting of some old wth stands —

from lands controlled by the U.S,
Forest Service and Bureau of
Management, has created a vaci
in the U.S. market for B.C. Plyws

a

i

producers.

Smyth says that industry mu:
pause and take a serious look at
future in a market which demands
high quality product. He says that
the U.S. Pacific Northwest and B.C.
are the only two areas in the world
which manufacture the high qualit;
product.

MB claims that there is no future i
the industry and has decided to pac!
it in, citing competition from ot
products such as wafer board and
falling markets as the reasons for the
pullout.

Workers at the mill, situated in
MB's huge Tree Farm License #44,
feel betrayed by the company’s
announcement and are determined to
hold on to employment as long as
they can.

Brother Foxcroft says that IWA
-CANADA’s “bottom line” is the pres-
ervation of employment in Alberni
Valley. 7

The union has been participat ins
several committees which are study-
ing ways of lessening the effects of the
closure and other MB layoffs.

Foxcroft says the TFL can supply
another 40-50 years of old gro
timber and that there must be a con-
tinuation of manufacturing jobs in
the valley. j

A special committee has been
formed, from labour and man
ment, to review MB's reasons fo1
ting the plant down, and exam
what can be done with the rema

plywood plant. 3 4

Some of the other committees al
examining what can and what s
be done to create some jobs in
value-added forest products s¢
The committee is looking at
remanufacturing, finger joining,
Kiln Drying, along with other
natives to create stable jobs with t
existing wood supply.

Other committees are studyii
feasibility of building a special ct
tom cut “Hokushin” mill for the
anese market and getting anewn
tenance department going wl
would service MB's other Port Alt

operations.

A “silviculture and wood reco
committee is looking at creating
in the development of a 5 year