Lumber manufacturing and treatment plant
_ toes wholesale business here and in U.S.

7... MANITOBA — Here in a small
farming community of less than 2,000
people situated near the Sas-
katchewan border in lower central
Manitoba, the forest industry has a
significant presence. For nearly twen-
ty years the IWA has represented
workers at Roblin Forest Products, a
small wood product and treatment
pant, about 250 miles south of The

It's one of the few IWA operations
where raw logs are brought in and
broken down into lumber, post, poles,
or other products right on the job site.
The operation generally get its timber
supply from local forests which are
controlled by Repap Enterprises, the
forest giant which bought out Manfor
in 1989.

The operation handles mostly soft-
woods (i.e. jackpine, spruce) as full
length logs are brought into the yard.
Workers then examine the logs for
their potential uses. For instance,
after debarking, a grader can look at a
jackpine to decide whether or not it is
suitable for use as a telephone pole or
a post. Or it can be milled into one or
two inch lumber.

During peak season periods the
workforce goes up to about 44 work-
ers and by late October to early
Spring the production sloughs off to a
skeleton crew.

The company pressure treats much
of its posts and lumber, either rough
cut or planed. The pressure treating
business is very competitive so the
workforce is quite flexible in its exe-
cution of duties.

The plant first opened in 1958 and a
year later began to treat lumber with
an arsenic based wood preservative.
Today the process is much the same
as it was in the early days although
the chemical now used is called K33,
an arsenic free chemical compound.

The pressure treatment is done
inside giant steel cylinders in which
entire lifts of lumber, posts or poles,
are put under high vacuum pressure
and are then immersed with the
impregnating solution.

The pressure treating wood preser-
vatives work their way through the

° During production shutdown at Roblin Forest Products Local 1-324 member Len Curle does maintenance work.

sapwood into the heartwood. Such
treatment is necessary to combat the
wood from being ruined by insects
and fungi.

Traditionally in Manitoba treated
posts and wood have been used on
bridges, barns and well cribbing.
Today more treated products are
appearing in domestic fencing and lat-
tice work as well.

Treated wood can be then planed,
varnished, glued, or painted without
problems.

Roblin operates mostly on a five
day a week, one shift basis with some
extra shift work done on occasion.
The company has four pressure treat-

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job steward and lumber treaterman Earl Chase adjusts control dials.

ment tanks and has ploughed about
$1.5 million into upgrading the tank
area technology and site over the last
two years.That's a good sign the com-
pany has some intention on staying in
Roblin for a while yet. Although years
ago the plant used to produce large
volumes of telephone poles for the
Manitoba telephone system, that busi-
ness has dropped off. It now primarily
acts as a production and wholesaler
for treated wood products sold all
over western Canada and the United
States.

The largest question facing the
company in the future will probably
be access to timber. In the late 50's
and 1960's the company had its own
logging operation and also bought
timber from contract loggers.

Now it is almost completely depen-
dent on what Repap Enterprises will
give it. Before Repap came on the

scene, Roblin got its wood from sites
that were selectively harvested. Now
Repap says everything must be clear
cut.

"Obviously if-it was clear cut 50
years ago," said one worker, "we
wouldn't have anything to put through
the plant today."

Local 1-324 President Jim Anderson
says that a giant company like Repap
should be more sensitive to the needs
of smaller manufacturer like Roblin
which create jobs and community sta-
bility. That includes investigating the
way wood is cut.

"If there's an opportunity to do
selective logging versus clear cutting,
then that's what should be looked at,"
says Brother Anderson.

The collective agreement between
Roblin and the IWA be renegotiated
next year. Average wage is about
$10.00/hr.

Disabled workers’ representative
gets top post on Premier’s Council

A disabled forest worker has been
appointed as Chairperson of the B.C.
Premier’s Council for Persons with
Disabilities. On January 10, 1993 Wolf-
gang Zimmerman a former member of
IWA-CANADA Local 1-85 (Port Alberni)
was appointed the position by B.C.
Premier Mike Harcourt.

Since July of last year, when Mr.
Zimmerman was first appointed to the
Council as a regular member, the
body has been rounded out to 13
members. Those members have been
chosen from every part of the
province to reflect. regional and gen-
der balance.

Mr. Zimmerman says the Council's
members will be able to make broad
based recommendations for persons
with disabilities.

Continued on page fifteen

e Wolfgang Zimmerman

LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1993/13