© Hoist operator Lazarus Lathin at the Repap's planing operation.

Uncertainty still exists at the
Repap La Pas lumber division

by Owen Einsiedler

Financial instability and a push
toward mechanical logging at Repap
Manitoba Inc.’s operation near The
Pas has IWA-CANADA 1-324 worried.

With close to 400 of an estimated
650 members in the Manitoba Local
employed in Repap’s woodlands and
lumber division, Local president and
business agent Jim Anderson is look-
ing for answers from the privately-
owned forestry firm.

Uncertainty exists over the Can-
adian-owned company’s financial sta-
tus since it purchased the operation
from the Manitoba government about
two years ago. It also owns the largest
coated paper mill in the world in
Wisconsin.

“Financially it sounds like Repap is
having a lot of problems, they are a
highly leveraged company,” says
Anderson. “Besides, the Canadian
dollar and interest rates are both hav-
ing a significant impact on them.”

The Local remains optimistic
though the Repap will rebound from
its huge debt that if unabated could
shut the operation down.

Built in 1969, the complex, consist-
ing of a lumber and paper mill, oper-
ates five days a week with two shifts.
Production in the lumber division con-
tinues to break records raising con-
cerns that employees could be work-
ing themselves out of a job. Although
designed for a capacity of 360,000
board feet per day, more than 500,000
board feet are now being produced.

Only a year ago, 1-324 was singing
the praibes pro Hebap for being a
* le orientated company.”

Prwe won't say that about them
today,” Anderson states.

While continuing to clean up the
environment and provide a healthy
reforestation program, numerous
layoffs have occurred to members in
the woodlands area and from the
sawmill.

“The company is currently making
great efforts to contract everything
out in the woodlands.”

Just last year assurances were
given that the lumber division would
continue operating for the immediate
future. A three-year contract was
reached which featured increases of

85 cents the first year and wage hikes
of 5% percent for the second and third
years respectively of the agreement.

Other uncertainties also cloud the
future of IWA members at Repap’s
Manitoba operation.

At present Repap is planning to
convert the pulp and paper mill to.a
strictly bleached kraft facility. Al-
though this $1 billion first phase was
approved by the province, the federal
government ground the process to a
halt citing a need for its own environ-
mental assessment study.

The second phase calls for a new
sister mill adjacent to the present one
with a capacity of 1,200 tonne per day
of bleached craft pulp.

Currently, the province and the fed-
eral government are involved in con-
ducting a joint phase-two environ-
mental impact study. No work will
commence until all licences are issued.

“The spinoff affects would increase
our woodlands area substantially even
with mechanization.”

For the past two years Repap has
been working toward mechanizing its
logging operations.

There is a fear that mechanization
will begin in earnest prior to the com-
pany being able to use all the prod-
ucts produced by its implementation,
says Anderson.

The past year, in particular, has
seen a concerted effort by the com-
pany to institute mechanization in
the bush.

“We're concerned about employ-
ment and the environment as
machines replace men. For instance,
contractors have gone from using
cable-line skidders to feller bunchers.
Another area of concern is the use of
gra) ple skidders and delimbing
machines.”

Mechanical logging has already
forced some workers residing in small
communities north of The Pas to relo-
cate to the mills in The Pas in order to
maintain employment with the com-
pany.

“Uprooting entire families in such a
fashion has been very unpopular,”
Anderson says.

- Further, Repap is now purchasing
wood chips from contractors with
whole-tree chipping operations. As
such, trees are cut, sorted, limbs and
bark removed, chopped into chips and
loaded onto trucks causing even fur-
ther reductions in the workforce in the

woods and for log processors in the
mill.

The Local is also troubled by the
sawmill log supply.

“Once they get their expansion and
modernization completed some of the
worry about sawlogs will be allevi-
ated because of the greater selection
of sawed timber. Since sawlogs are
pulled out and sorted at the mill the
more volume they go through the
more sawlogs.”

On the positive side, the company
is continuing its ambitious reforesta-
tion program pushing to make up for

a time when little replanting occurred
in the province. Presently, Repap is
planting a tree for every one cut down
and expects to sow 7.5 million seed-
lings this year on its forestry limits.

With prices rising for lumber and
sales increasing, it appears for the
first time in a number of years there
could be a turnaround in the industry

“We're optimistic that things are
starting to improve economically in
the country, if that’s true then Repap
could be a front runner among fores-
try companies.”

Aspenite workers face
layoffs after start-up

HUDSON BAY, SASKATCHEWAN
— It’s been tough times here for
IWA-CANADA Local 1-184 members
who work at the MacMillan Bloedel
Aspenite Division. Since June of 1990
there hasn’t been steady employment
for much of the workforce.

On August 24, workers were told of
another indefinite shutdown due to
market conditions and there's no sign
of things getting better, at least in the
near future.

For some union members there
hasn't been any work since the sum-
mer of last year, and their unemploy-
ment insurance and seniority is run-
ning out. Some other more senior
workers have only gathered enough
weeks to renew their unemployment
insurance benefits.

In June of this year the mill went
through a 2-month cycle which saw 3
shifts and 113 workers back on the job
5 days a week. The sudden back to
work announcement had optimism
growing in the community which has
seen nothing but rough times during
this recession. But that optimism was
changed quickly as the market surge
for oriented strand board (OSB)
dropped off.

The mill slowdown has had a direct
impact on IWA bushworkers who
haven't had any work due to an over-
supply of raw material in the plant’s
yard.

Many haven't had a stick of work
since last year and have had to leave
the Hudson Bay area in search of
greener pastures.

MB seems to be waiting for another
market upswing like the one in late-
May where the prices for OSB took a
sudden hike in both Canada and the

The current building recession and
the industry’s over capacity have
rocked the MB operation for the past
several years. It is the oldest OSB
plant operating in Canada and hasn’t
had any major renovating for over 9
years. The mill’s press capacity is
sadly behind that of its North Ameri-
can competitors.

Plant chairman Paul Hallen, also
second vice-president of Local 1-184,
says that many workers are getting
disheartened and are trying to take
one day at a time.

“We haven't seen it like this in the
summer months before,” says Brother
Hallen. “We hate to see what it’s going
to be like in the winter when the build-
ing cycle slows down even further.”

Those who worked during the last
2-month market surge had to have at
least 6 years of seniority to get a
callback.

For over two years the local union
has been waiting for MB to make a
move. Since 1989 the workers have
been hanging onto the announcement
that the Aspenite Division wouldn't
be the long-term future of Hudson
Bay.

So what's in store for the workers of
Hudson Bay is unknown at this point.

The local union is very concerned
that there should be a continuance of

employment in the town and that the
government should ensure that MB
makes a ‘firm’ commitment in that
direction.

In the spring the local union, along
with the help of the Saskatchewan
Federation of Labour president Barb
Byers, organized a trip to Regina to
talk with provincial politicians. Mem-
bers of Hudson Bay’s Chamber of
Commerce, Town Council, local
Clergy, and others joined with the

5
é
F
é

© Local 1-184 member Claude Washburn.

IWA to raise their concerns with Gra-
ham Taylor, provincial Minister of
Labour.

Hudson Bay’s mayor Neil Hardy
and the mayor of Prairie River, accom-
panied the entourage which didn’t get
any straight answers on the future of
MB or the town. The delegation also
met with officials of Employment and
Immigration Canada in an effort to
seek some ways of stimulating Hud-
son Bay’s economy.

“Whether or not anything will ever
come out of that meeting remains to
be seen,” said Ted Becker, Local
1-184’s financial secretary.

So far the only new attempt to
create jobs came from the former Con-
servative government’s FAIR-SHARE
program which will relocate govern-
ment offices throughout rural Saskat-
chewan.

Hudson Bay was supposed to re-
ceive the provincial liquor licensing
bureaucracy. However, there’s strong
doubts as to whether that will create
enynions for displaced woodworkers.

“Hudson Bay is still recovering from
the shock of the June 1990 permanent
closure of Simpson Timber Compa-
ny’s sawmill which saw 165 IWA mill-
workers lose their livelihoods and an
additional 400-450 loggers placed on
the unemployment lines.

In the past sixteen months over 12
local businesses have gone belly-up
and the town’s population has been
withering away.

ee mei.

LUMBERWORKER/NOVEMBER, 1991/7