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VANCOUVER, B.C. — In an address to the Annual meeting of the Truck Loggers Association on January 22, TWA-CANADA's fourth vice-president Roger Stanyer predicted a future of uncertainty for B.C. loggers. 4 “There is no question in my mind that the logger of today will change radically over the next years,” said Stanyer. “That trend has already been evident over the last ten years, but as we move into the 1990's and beyond, the pace and intensity of those changes will increase.” '__ The speaker said that the pace and direction of that change will depend on the extent to which current har- vest levels have been over-committed, concerns about dealing with the envi- ronment and the ability of the logging sector to come to terms with deficien- cies in training. “It is no secret that many areas in the province will have to swallow reductions in their annual allowable cuts,” said Stanyer. “We are seeing it here on the south coast, on Vancouver Island and in the Northern Interior.” Stanyer said that when Tree Farm Licenses were introduced, there were speechmakers who predicted “forests forever.” “The average logger believed, when he heard those speeches, that those people knew what they were saying and the forecasts they made were accurate. They weren’t and now we are struck with managing that mess.” He predicted that the lower harvest Union officer predicts change for loggers levels in the future will have to be spread across the existing workforce which will result in shorter work years. “I’m not sure anybody has sat down. and thought about all of the problems and frictions which will develop under those type of work arrangements,” said Stanyer. On the forest and the environment Stanyer said “It has become almost cliche for industry ... to talk about how public concern about the environ- ment will change the way they do business . .. We (in the forest indus- try) operate on lands that are, by and large, public. That fact, more than anything else, means that what we do in this industry will have a large dose of public scrutiny attached to it.” The impact of that public scrutiny according to Stanyer, will mean that loggers will have to do things differ- ently in the future. He said that the industry has not logged on a truly sustainable basis and replanted and tended the crop in a way that added to the resource. “Undoing those things will require loggers (both the management and union) to be a lot more tolerant of public input.” Stanyer said that all must find a better way of communicating to the public and changes are needed to establish more acceptable methods of doing things. “To some extent that has already begun with the camp tours that have At the microphone on behalf of the IWA was Local 1-85 first vice-pres' Haggard, who said reforestation money must not be used to create low paying jobs. BC. Fed allowed to use money for reforestation silviculture to create low paying ‘Local 1-80’s first vice-president Bill Routley said that “we need a govern- ment that will legislate silviculture” and that we have to work together to create jobs with a New Democratic government. Clay Perry, director of IWA-CAN- ADA’s Environmental Land Use De- partment, said that to rehabilitate the waste tracts of insufficiently restocked lands, we may require more revenue than that which comes from the forests. © National fifth vice-president Roger Stanyer sat on discussion panel at Truck Log- gers Convention. Brother Stanyer said that the logger of the future will need training in non-traditional work areas to become more than a seasonal worker. been initiated over the last two years,” said Stanyer. “These kinds of activi- ties will have to increase in the com- ing years if we are going to be success- ful in winning greater public approval and confidence. Stanyer said that although many industry people view environmental- ists as the enemy, he believes that the outcry of the environmentalists has caused industry to make many changes, although not all changes brought about desired results. He called for the development of logging systems which require less road building, the utilization of sound wood under the current zero waste policy, and the development of inten- sive silviculture. Stanyer said that pressure from companies on logging operations to cut costs in the future will make it more difficult to obtain money to train workers. Current cost cutting strategies are also, according to Stanyer, putting the safety of loggers at risk as workers take “short cuts.” The speaker suggested that train- ing and the development of training programs will happen outside of the work place to a large degree. “You only have to look at other places in the world to see our competi- tion and what they are doing and you will understand we must change.” Stanyer said that to create gainful employment, we have to rethink what a forestry worker will look like. “I recognize that not many fallers want to be tree planters, and not many grapple yarder operators want to be spacers. However, if this indus- try is going to provide employment it must be something other than sea- sonal work.” “It must be a reasonable work year or surely we will only attract those people who can’t get a job somewhere else. That means developing a logger who is a forest industry worker that performs a variety of tasks from har- vesting to planting and crop tend- ing.” Stanyer said that long-term de- mands for fibre look good and that BC. has one of the better opportuni- ties to participate in training loggers to work safely and compete with any- one in the world. Stanyer was speaking as a guest of the TLA, an association of indepen- dent logging contractors in British Columbia. Safety cuts Continued from page twelve Complacency also stems from the retention of the popular CCOHS toll- free phone lines, through which work- ers and employers can answer their safety questions for free. That won't last. It’s too good a revenue source. The push toward self-sufficiency will have a price not measured in dollars. Unable to pay, individuals and small unions will no longer be able to discuss problems with their employers based on common informa- tion. Even unions as big and rich as IWA-CANADA says they won't be able to afford as much information as they have sought in the past. Another fear is that information sources will begin to charge the CCOHS when they learn that the centre is selling its “product.” The centre currently receives infor- mation free from organizations such as the US. National Institute of Occu- pational Safety and Health and the ternational Labour Organization. But Cricks says NIOSH demands royalties from U.S. Scenes that charge for passing on NIOSH infor- mation. The CCOHS also receives free infor- mation from chemical companies. Safety consultants expect that they soon will have to seek that informa- tion on an ad hoc basis from compa- nies, a time-consuming and less effec- tive process. Safety makes sense for front-line workers who suffer, and for employers who need to retain healthy, skilled workers and who ultimately foot the bill for workers’ compensation claims. Canadian Chemical Producers Association president Jean Belanger said a year ago the government could not run away from its responsibility in this area. The 74 chemical producers he rep- resents supply 90 per cent of the chemicals in Canada, or $11 billion worth annually. Belanger said that even with a user fee — which he does not entirely oppose — the centre could never provide its full service without some government support. The government seems to be ignor- ing the old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. ‘You pay for accident prevention, or else you pay tenfold in worker’s com- pensation claims, costly cures and uman suffering. — Valerie Casselton is the labour reporter with the Vancouver Sun re this article first appeared. LUMBERWORKER/FEBRUARY, 1991/15.