Bill Routley

¢ Tony Bennett

Balance annual cuts
say IWA delegates

Area-based Tree Farm Licence holders in B.C.
have never been particularly careful about where or
when they have harvested old growth timber on
their logging claims. This year the IWA is demand-
ing that the provincial government force the holders
of tree farm licences "to balance the yearly cut
throughout their farm licences to provide stability
to existing communities."

Brother Tony Bennett of Local 1-85 told delegates
that the local union is suffering consequences when
MacMillan Bloedel has moved its logging operations
off of the west coast of Vancouver Island to the
Cameron/Franklin River area. This action has
caused the community of Ucluelet to suffer as the
result of job losses and has created an overcut
problem in the Cameron/Franklin area.

On the west coast, Brother Bennett's logging
crew at MB Kennedy Lake Division has suffered job
losses in the order of 40%.

"J think it is time that we tell the government
(and) that we tell the industry that this is no longer
acceptable," said Bennett. "It is a morally bankrupt
system that allows companies to take charge of that
timber with no overseeing value by the Forest Ser-
vice to ensure that communities which rely on that
timber have some stability and have some future."

Ken Bayers, a delegate of Logger Local 1-71 said
there have been problems in the Weldwood Canada
TFL in which he works on the Mainland B.C. Coast.
He said that the 5 year TFL planning doesn't stop
overcutting in any one year.

"What's happening in our area is that we ended
up logging three years of quota in two years. So
somewhere down the line we had two years of half
employment," said Bayers. "And there's nothing
there to force the company to balance that out
evenly over the five years. They just go as the mar-
ket dictates."

"...Over the last five years (we've been) just cut-
ting strictly cedar and fir. And we have a lot of hem-
lock/balsam on our tree farms and it's just sitting
there," said Bayers. "I think the writing is on the

° Reading out the resolves for the resolutions committee were (1) Larry Rewakowsky of Port Alberni Local

1-85 and Bob De Leeuw of Alberta Local 1-207.

wall, when the hemlock and fir are gone I can't see
our company hanging in there."

"... There has to be something put in place to make
companies take certain species throughout the
ea not just log what's currently hot on the mar-

et.”

Bill Routley, president of Local 1-80, said the his-
torical administration of tree farm licence areas on
Vancouver Island has been disastrous for communi-
ties in the Cowichan Valley.

Over 20 years ago, British Columbia Forest Prod-
ucts, Fletcher Challenge's predecessor asked the
government to merge TFL's in the Cowichan Valley
and further up*the west coast. After merging these
two TFL's, BCFP began to "block up" it's cutting rate
and harvest old growth at an unsustainable rate in
the Cowichan Valley.

Because both BCFP and Fletcher Challenge have
drastically overcut and haven't spread the cut out,
the sawmill in Youbou in the Cowichan Valley faces
a timber shortage crisis.

In 1989 Fletcher Challenge cut 450 jobs from Lo-
cal 1-80 and last year cut another 150 positions.

"My point is that throughout British Columbia
this has been allowed to occur. Almost every tree
farm licence is large in geographical area and the
reason that they wanted those large geographical
areas is so they could "block up" and cut close to
the manufacturing plant."

"It is a terrible state of affairs that we have in
British Columbia and as far as I'm concerned we re-
ally have to look at the tenure system in our
province... They're (the TFL holders) are on the
track of reducing the number of jobs. And the
tenure system is one of the problems that sooner or
later we are going to have to address."

¢ Murray Cantelon e Jack Harmston

Mandatory training
of loggers called for

Why there are no formal training systems for log-
gers in most provinces across Canada is still a prob-
Jem for our union. At this year's national convention
the union unanimously instructed the National Of
fices to investigate the feasibility of establishing a

pee and training program for the logging in-
lustry.

Murray Cantelon of Local 1-71 said that "if we can
get our loggers accepted as tradesmen, as skilled
people, it's going to do away with a lot of yahoos
coming in, in the small business sales, just wrecking
everything and hiding in a holding company, (while
the public) blames us as professional union loggers
for the mess they left."

"I think the IWA could show leadership in taking
the government by the hand and saying we want to
participate in training programs. We want our peo-
ple certified, we need some money for it."

"It's a win-win situation,” said Brother Cantelon.
"The companies get some wood, our guys get some
jobs and the environmentalists are happy because
we're learning how to do our job in an environmen-
tally friendly way."

Bill Routley of Local 1-80 said that a certification
program in the logging industry will take better care
of our workers.

"A lot of our guys aren't aware of new regulations
that are being formulated almost on a daily basis,"
said Routley. "We need to have our people run
through those programs and we need to be certified
as the environmentally friendly loggers that we are
so that when there is a change to tenure and when
the Small Business Program or whatever program
takes place does carve up some of the tenure that's
currently in the hands of the Fletcher Challenge or
the MacMillan Bloedel's, our guys are going to be
protected."

Routley told delegates that we should take back
some control of the land and said "we want the right
for our members to work on these lands. When I
look at what is coming in second growth, if we
don't get on with the job of certification programs,
and we don't get away from the high tech equip-
ment that is coming, the only jobs that are going to
be left in the woods are a handful of feller-bunch-
ers, even here on the coast."

In Sweden 3 direct jobs are created for every
1,000 cubic metres of timber harvested, due to
intensive forest practices. In B.C. less than one
direct job is created per 1,000, in some of the most
lucrative old growth timber stands in the world.

"The only way we can turn that around is if we
start looking at labour intensive kind of work, doing
intensive silviculture. Running around like they do
in Sweden."

"If we take our people and run them through
some programs and get certified then when there is
a layoff or a change in tenure we can request that
government require, through legislation... that the
only way you can access that work is if you're a cer-
tified worker."

Brother Routley says the government is already
talking about the need to look at training and re-
training of forest workers and is examining environ-
mentally sensitive logging practices, intensive
silviculture methods, and other options that require
training of workers. i

Delegate Jack Harmston of Local 1-71 said in the
Terrace, B.C. area an effort to train and certify log-
gers was being supported by federal government
dollars, and that there is interest in such a program.
He pointed out that training has to be done on actu-
al logging settings and not in a school.

18/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1992