° At the planer mill maintenance facility Jit Mann prepares jointing system prior to sharpening.

Canada’s first planer mill maintenance
training program now well underway

The first group of planerman gradu-
ates are about to step up to the podi-
um to get their degrees. Fourteen
workers who went through a seven
week course in. Canada’s first formal
planerman training program will be
the first of their kind to do so.

A group of Planermill Maintenance
Technician II’s will complete their last
week of school during the week of
June 12-16, 1995.

In the southeastern B.C. community
of Cranbrook, the East Kootenay
Community College, is now offering
through its facilites a full-fleged plan-
ermill maintenance course. The first
fourteen candidates started the
course in September of 1994. Current-
ly the second wave of candidates are
going through the course, having
started in February of this year.

The program is en-
joying a high level of
participation with
workers from
various regions of
Canada

A total of 70 upgrade students and
20 apprentice students have gone
through the course to date.

The entire course is made possibe
due to the sustained efforts of the
Joint Industrial Planning Committee in
the province’s southern interior. The
committee consists of representatives
from I.W.A. locals 1-405, 1-417 and 1-
423, Neil Menard, National First Vice-
President of the I-W.A. and the Interior
Forest Labour Relations Association,
an employer relations organization
representing some major companies.

The facilities are jointly monitored
by the college, labour and industry
which work together to monitor the
ciriculum.

The need for a proper upgrading

and apprenticeship program has been
there since 1991 when the Provincial
Apprenticeship Board recognized the
position of planerman as a certifiable
trade. Since then all of the apprentice-
ship training has been done in-house
by companies without a lot of coordi-
nation of standards in the industry.

As the forest industry evolves: to-
wards more value added manufactur-
ing, a planer mill technician’s job is
bound to become more specialized,
says Local 1-405 president Bob Matters.

planer alignment to apprentice class.

Bob Matters, president of I.W.A.
Local 1405 in Cranbrook says that it is
ironic, but the planer technician of the
future will be aquiring some of the same
skills that planerman of the past had.

“Planermen who worked in the in-
dustry 30-40 years ago had to have a
lot of skills,” says Brother Matters. “In
those days many of the mills in the in-
terior were producing pattern stock
and mouldings. Lumber was being
turned into pattern siding and wall
panelling.”

: : . ae

° Instructor Peter Vogt demonstrates the installation of a datum line used for

Roper East Kootenay Community College

Then during the early 1970's, in the
southern interior, most mills went
into high volume production of di-
mensional lumber as they left value-
added production behind.

Brother Matters says that the union
is proud to have the facilities in the
community of Cranbrook and that all
locals of the I.W.A. were instrumental

in making it a reality.

He says that Cranbrook is a good

location to serve the needs of workers.

the northern United States.

from B.C., the prairie provinces and @
Peter Vogt, instructor of the new

program, says that the course has

been enthusiastically attended by
workers. He says that the classes for
apprentices are filled already for Sep-
tember of 1995 and that the classes
that start in February of next year are
filling as well.

Workers have attended from British
Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and
the Northwest Territories.

“We are glad that there is a high lev-
el of participation in the program and
that there are planermen enrolled
from various regions of the country,”
say I.W.A. CANADA’S National First
Vice President Neil Menard, who sits
on the Joint Industrial Planning Com-
mittee along with the presidents of,
I.W.A. locals in the southern interio@
“We as a union have been trying to get

2 these upgrading and apprenticeship
$ courses into place for several years. It

planerman, it is recommended that all
workers write the provincial Trades
Qualification test.

Should a veteran worker not pass
the test, they will not lose their job
and they can write the test again.

The planermill training facilites
have had practically all of the equip-
ment donated from industry. Accord-
ing’ to’ Mr? ‘Vogt, there”is’ more
equipment being donated by industry
to bring the total to more than
$250,000 by later this year.

The planing equipment is set up to
handle 2 x 4’s. There is a lift hoist,
feed table, take away and PLC operat-
ed trim saw. In addtion there is a
grinding room, tool crib and other
amenities of the trade in over 10,00
square feet of shop space.

The Level I planermill course is a
one year program and the Level II is a
two year program which focused
about 60% of its time on the class-
room.

Mr. Vogt says that the program is
constantly being reviewed by industry
when the planer mill technicians re-
turn back to their operations. @

Troi Caldwell, president of Local 1-

423 in Kelowna,says that it is impor-
tant that input from workers is heard
when the program has to be updated
or changed.

“The planermill training program
must be kept current and the review
of its content must be kept up,” says
Brother Caldwell. “The program has
been designed to be run in a spirit of
cooperation, and we must see that it
continues in that way. The input of
workers is essential to our participa-
tion and the program’s success.”

Mr. Vogt says that some workers
have faced language barriers in the
upgrade course work and that transla-
tors have been brought in to facilitate
learning sessions.

Kevin Kelly, president of Local @
417 in Kamloops says that the course
offered do focus a lot on safety.

“We're pleased to see that there is
an accent on safety,” says Brother
Kelly. “Over the years too many of our
members have had serious, disablii
accidents around the planer. It is a
very dangerous place to work without
proper safety training and instruc-
tion.”

Mr. Vogt says that the courses in-
struct WHMIS, WCB regulations in the
planer mill, and lockout procedures
among other areas.

6/LUMBERWORKER/JUNE, 1995