Repap talks

Continued from page one

in an atmosphere where they can
put pressure on contractors to
reduce wages and benefits at the
expense of employees in most
cases.”

Local 1-324’s 100 company log-
gers and 50 contract loggers are
experiencing the effects of rapid
technological changes. The intro-
duction of feller bunchers limbers
and new roadside chippers will
eliminate over 60% of jobs in its
woodlands divisions.

IWA member employees working
directly and indirectly for Repap are
concerned that the technological
change and downsizing will have a
disruptive effective on their lives.
The union represents workers in
the Cranberry-Flin Flon (Kissis-
sing) region; Thompson-Wawbow-
den (Nelson River); the Moose Lake
region; and the Swan River area
south of The Pas.

Repap employs 145 workers at its
sawmill and planer in The Pas,
where it also has a pulp and paper
mill. As workers from the bush
operations are getting laid off, they
are often relocating to The Pas to
jobs in the sawmill.

In the bush operations, some cut-
ters are breaking-in on feller bunch-
er equipment or are being trained to
get their class one license for haul-
ing wood chips on long highway
hauls. All around, there’s alot of
changes happening.

In its logging operations, the
introduction of new Peterson Pacific
chippers will eventually eliminate
the need for highway hauling of logs
to the pulp mill.

Pulpwood handlers now run dou-
ble or single trailer loads of 16-foot
pulpwood lengths to the pulp mill.
As the chipper delimber comes on
stream, many of those truck driving
jobs will disappear.

The chippers will chip up entire
tree lengths of wood and blow the
mill ready chips into chiphaul
trucks right at the roadside. Gone
will be the need for slashing pulp
logs to length.

Repap plans to sort the sawlogs
from the pulpwood in the feller
buncher process. The company says
a sawlog is a tree that is 16 feet
with a minimum 5-inch top. The
butts must be at least 7 inches, any-
thing less will be chipped.

Workers are concerned that
Repap must maintain its supply of
sawlogs to the mill in The Pas. For
reasons known only unto the com-
pany, Repap let it sawlog inventory
dwindle to next to nothing in July
before a 5 week shutdown and the
startup of negotiations with the

IWA. A three year contract expires
at the end of August, 1992.

“We imagine that they run the log
supply so low to put some sort of
pressure on us at the bargaining
table,” says brother Anderson.
“Whatever Beppene: we're deter-
mined to get the best deal possible
for the mill workers and get Repap
to go a little easier on its introduc-
tion of tech change into the bush-
lands.”

Brother Anderson says that,
although Repap has been losing
money, it would have lost even
more in 1991-1992 if the sawmill
hadn’t been running two shifts.

Repap’s current sawmill shut-
down is a missed market opportuni-
ty as lumber prices are now better
than they have been in the past
couple of years. Loggers have been
laid off for months while inventory
supplies have dropped and lumber
prices have risen.

“Without the sawmill going, they
would have been in greater finan-
cial difficulty,” says brother
Anderson.

The sawmill’s workforce has
remained constant since Repap
bought out Manfor in May of 1989.
The mill can produce over a daily
average of 437,000 finished board
feet in a full range of 2 inch dimen-
sion lumber products.

During its introduction of tech
change Repap has had an open ear
for the IWA.

“To be honest, the company has
given us some options, but we don’t
appreciate all the options we're get-
ting,” says Anderson. “Some of our
members working in woodlands
operations would rather stay out
there as piece workers or bushwork-
ers.”

Many times during the tech
change process, Repap has taken a
“take-it-or-leave-it” approach to its
workforce.

When the company took over
Manfor over 3 years ago, it
promised to maintain stability
throughout the communities situat-
ed throughout its logging claim.
Repap was to have an annual cut of
2.4 million cubic metres of softwood
and 840,000 cubic metres of hard-
wood species on over 104,000
square kilometres, however that
has not taken place. Repap has an
annual cut of approximatley
780,000 cubic metres of softwood.

At first Repap’s assurances were
taken at face value by the union
and given the benefit of the doubt.

But now, brother Anderson says,
“the honeymoon with Repap has
long been over with.”

“We can see that their bottom line
is dollars and not people,” says
Anderson.

The contract talks continue at
press time.

Recycling plant

Continued from page eleven

about 5 semi-trailer loads of bailed,
recycled materials, which it receives
from various sources such as
Cosmopolitan Industries (a shelter
workshop in Saskatoon), the Regina
Leader/Post Newspaper, Labatt’s,
and the Manitoba Telephone
Company. Local Boyscouts and
Girlguides also supply some recy-
cled papers.

The recycled mixture used is
about 85% paper (newspapers, tele-
phone eal trim, etc.) and 15%
cardboard. After giant propeller
knives pulp the recycled raw mater-
ial, a refiner removes impurities
such as staples, glass, and wire
from a greyish water mixture which
contains the recycled fibres. The
recycled mixture is vacuumed
through a screen onto the egg tray

moulds, which then pass over to a
dryer system.

The egg tray moulds are dried in
an oven system that bakes them at
about 350°C. After they come out of
he dryer they are bundled 140 to a

ag.

In 1987 the plant underwent
some changes as extensions were
added onto the building, the dryer
area, and a larger trucking bay with
14 doors was built. Currently the
company wants to add a third
stacking line as it can now run an
additional line of products.

Markets for Fripp’s production
are in western Canada and the
United States. It mostly supplies 3
types of egg trays (that handle 2-1/2
dozen eggs each) to egg producers.
Although the natural colour of the
recycled product is grey, Fripp also
adds colour for custom orders. ¥

As more and more of the public is
becoming environmentally con-
scious, Fripp is using more materi-
als that have been previously recy-
cled.

° The current introduction of feller bunchers into Répap’s woodland operations
is eliminating dozens of conventional timber cutter jobs.

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12/LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1992