¢ Local 1-2693 members have been going full speed. Mill employs about 257 union workers.

2

Hudson Ontario members working three
shifts in boom-time for lumber prices

As lumber prices are staying high,
mills are making money hand over
fist. Whether they are dimension lum-
ber producers or stud mills, lumber
prices have never been better.

For an IWA-CANADA certified
sawmill in northeastern Ontario the
transition from a dimension mill to a
stud mill in the early 1970’s was a
good move that kept the business
operating through tough times over
the past two decades.

Today the mill, known as McKenzie
Forest Products Limited, is producing
studs around the clock, in the commu-
nity of Hudson, Ontario, about 257
miles northwest of Thunder Bay. The
mill employs over 243 union members
which is just as large a workforce as
there has ever been there.

The mill processes about 1000
cords of wood over a 24 hour period
which translates into about 550,000
board feet of studs. About 60% of the
production is jackpine and the other

40% is black spruce which are perfect
for studs.

The town of Hudson has a popula-
tion of about 6-700 people. Many of
the mill’s workers come from the
community of Sioux Lookout which is
about 15 miles to the northeast.

“If the mill ever shuts down then
the town of Hudson will really be dev-
astated,” says Local 1-2693 business
agent Lloyd Szkaley. “In every sense
of the words, Hudson is a forestry
dependent community.”

A first version of the mill was built
in the mid-1950’s. The company was

¢ Stud mill can produce 550,000 board feet over 24 hour period.

known as Lac Seul Land and Lumber.
Then it became Pope and Talbot, then
Abitibi, and then was bought in 1978
by Buchanan Forest Products which
runs the mill today.

The local union says that labour
relations in the mill are as good as
they are in other operations.

The union committee consists of
plant cahirman Robert Elliot, Matt
Bennett, Silvester Kiepek, and Dave
Lidder.

However in the woodlands,
Buchanan has contracted out the log-
ging to non-union “pack-sackers”
which are mostly small-time owner/
operators which are impossible to

organize. Most of the wood hauling is
also done by non-union truckers as.
well. However some of the hauling
with Atway truckers is done under
union certification.

Every indication is that the mill is
there to stay. Buchanan has ploughed
a sizable investment into upgrading
the mill, the latest of which been
upgraded kiln capacity. All the studs
are kiln dried before planing.

The mill is a two line chip and saw
operation. On the big side, they can
handle up to a 31” log on the debark-
er. There is an old-fashioned pond
system still used in the green end.

The mill’s Mark II line is the most
efficient with a bull edger that cuts
straight 2 by 4’s and processes over

An every sense of
the word
Hudson Ontario
ts a forestry
dependent
community

275 linear feet of logs per minute. The
side boards pass through a board
edger which takes more 2 by 4’s out.

Graders look at everything to sepa-
rate the construction grade studs
from the economy grade. The studs
are trimmed at 98” before they go into
the kilns.

About 90% of the mill’s production
is sold in the United States with the
majority of that wood, both construc-
tion and utility grade going by rail
haul on 50 foot cars.

The mill sends its chips to north-
west Ontario mills \owned by
Canadian Pacific Forest Products,
Abitibi, and Domtar.

To get wood into the mill trucks
haul up to and over 120 miles around
Lake Seule. However to shorten that
haul, in July of last year, a new ferry
boat service began for logging trucks
which cuts about 50 miles off the
length of the haul around the lake.
The boat is operated in a joint part-
nership between the First Nations
people of the Lake Seule region, the
provincial government, and Buchanan
Forest Products.

Ontario logging camp
closures make life tough

You would think that as lumber
prices have risen and the forest com-
panies are making huge profits, there
would be less pressure on loggers
who live in logging camps. You would
think that employers would have a
more humane outlook when they are
rolling in the chips and that they
would leave the loggers in the logging
camps alone.

Camps were set up for obvious rea-
sons. Logging claims are usually far
away from communities and it would
be inhumane to get workers to travel
in and out of the bush and back and
forth to town each day.

In civilized societies the normal
work day is 8 hours. In the logging
camps you add your lunch, warm-up,
and travel times and you have got a
long day ahead of you. You want to
eat, relax, and hit the bunk at the end
of the day. The least thing you need is
a1 1/2 -3 hour drive home each way,
each day. If that happens, you are
stuck on a 14-16 hour work day.

Unfortunately that is what has hap-
pened to hundreds of loggers across
Canada. In times of high unemploy-
ment employers try to get away with

many things. The shutdown of the log-
ging camps is one of them.

In northern Ontario there are no
workers that have been more affected
by the camp closures than bushwork-
ers who are Local 1-2693 members. In
the past 5-6 years a total of nine log-
ging camps have shut down as life has
been made more difficult for workers.

The camp shutdowns have translat-
ed into lengthy commutes to work for
about 5000 union members.

“It’s hard to believe but these camp
closures have pushed the working
conditions back decades,” says Local
1-2693 business agent and second
vice-president Lloyd Szkaley. “The
bottom line for the logging companies
has been profits, no matter what
effect they have on the workforce.”

Canadian Pacific Forest Products
has led in the camp shutdowns. In the
past 5-6 years they have shut down
the following camps: #601, 602, 603,
234, and 418. They have also shut
down camp 329 near Ignace. In the
last year the company shutdown its
camp 134 about 10 miles east of

Upsula.
Continued on page twelve

&/LUMBERWORKER/AUGUST, 1994