Whale’s Tale Skills Centre Continued from previous page when he had to give up that job because of an old injury, is one of the MacBlo Kennedy Lake employ- ees laid off for good in December of last year. He began to check into the FRBC program in January of this year and by the end of February, the LW.A., and MacBlo put in a joint proposal to get the centre up and running. In early April the skills centre, until then con- tracted by FRBC to the Ministry of Skills, Training and Labour, fired up operations. It moved from fa- cilities at the Island West Lodge in Ucluelet to the old Whale’s Tale restaurant. : i Weber, whose job it is to get instructors for the basic programs and who tracks course participa- tion, says that laid off workers expressed immedi- ate need for job retraining. A needs assessment was carried out and Brother Weber says that “we realized that career counselling wasn’t going to happen overnight. So we had an immediate need to fill and the workers started figuring out that they need practical introductory courses as part of their retraining agenda.” “Forest Renewal jobs were not appearing like they said they would be, so we had to make a move to do some practical course work which our members would attend,” adds Weber. There are over 30 courses, some of which are skills used either directly or indirectly in the forest industry and others which are transferable to oth- er areas of employment. The courses include: line splicing, silvicultural surveying accreditation, vegetation inventory training, Level I First Aid with a transportation ticket, forest road construction practices and pro- cedures, bobcat training, waste and residue asses- ment certification, a forestry and engineering tech- nical diploma, and heli-logging. Other courses offered include a timber harvest- ing and value added seminar, transit work, carpen- try and woodworking, small engine repair, basic welding, how to become a park warden, road de- activation, grader operation, basic wood products technology, and silvicultural skills training. Weber says that career counselling must take place to identify the skills that a worker has and which skills are transferable to other workplaces. The counselling identifies a direction for the in- dividual to follow. Perhaps the worker needs to be computer literate or perhaps a Grade 12 is a must. A Grade 12 standing is important to have some- thing to fall back on. “It’s important to start at square one,” says We- ber. “You've got to have a goal in sight.” With all of the practical courses that the Whale’s Tale centre offers, some time is bought to allow in- dividuals to become computer literate and get their Grade 12. Weber notes that some workers may get embar- rassed about being counselled for lack of their ed- ucational background but that they usually get over it because it is their peers who are working with them at the centre. HD EQUIPMENT COURSE One of the most popular courses offered is an introductory heavy duty equipment course. Work- ers get first hand on-the-job instruction on D-7 caterpillars, front-end loader, back hoes, and rub- ber tired hoes. The skills centre arranges to use the machinery on a rental basis and provides equipment opera- tors to act as trainers. A course at Malaspina College could cost about $12,000 per worker per month. Brother Weber e One of the courses which workers have developed is heavy equipment operation. The course offers first hand on-the-job training conducted by fellow workers. says that by using peer trainers that there is a cost saving of about $40,000 per month on training 4-5 individuals. At the same time displaced equipment operators are learning skills to become trainers. Tan Kirkby, a spare heavy equipment operator from Kennedy Lake Division, is now instructing his peers. The course goes over basic mainte- nance, safe machine operation, controls and func- tion, and equipment capabilities. “Tf they (the workers) gain some knowledge from this course they can possibly expand on it in the future,” says Brother Kirkby. “If an in-depth training course comes up they will have some good background.” Kirkby has been instructing in three gravel pits on the basics.Some practical work has also been done by course graduates in the community where some earth has been moved at a local fish and game club. But the real Forest Renewal jobs in the future will most certainly be in road deactivation and wa- tershed rehabilitation. The skills centre offers an 8 week road rehabili- tation course. This is an excellent course for those who have already taken the heavy duty introduc- tion course. Brother Weber says that workers in Ucluelet will become upset if they don’t get called first and see work done in the Clayoquot Sound awarded to outside contractors. In reference to work done by MB through FRBC funding, Weber says that although there may be some rough spots in the future, that “they (MB) expect our cooperation and we expect theirs.” “We expect that when there are FRBC jobs here, we will get first crack at them. The government has never publicly said that there are not going to be enough of those ‘new forestry’ jobs out there,” says Weber. “The reality is that we have to look at every possible avenue of employment.” DEALING WITH A NEW REALITY There has been a shared sense of frustration by the loggers of Clayoquot Sound. If the 1993 Clay- oquot Decision was supposed to hold and then the 1995 Scientific Panel changed all that - then what’s next? © Posing for a shot at near the Skill Centre course listings boards are (1. to r.) Eric de Vries, Coordinator Bill Weber, Dave Edwards and Clive Pemberton, 2 Director. “If there was no program in place there would be even more uncertainty about the future,” says Weber. “And the situation is not good as it is.” “Rather than sit back and watch all job opportu- nites be eliminated we have decided to do some- thing about it,” he adds. Al Gudbranson, the Registrar at the centre, worked for 17 years as a driller/blaster with MB. At one time Kennedy Lake Division had 6 com- e Taking computer courses are (l.to r.) faller John Corlazzoli, faller Marko Sertic, and excavator op- erator Ian Kirkby. plete and two spare crews. Then, in 1990, the lay- offs started and for the last 5 years he has been working as a forestry crewman. At age 56, he has been planting trees, brushing, and girdling alder amongst other jobs. To jump from being an equipment operator to a ground level bush worker was a radical change - a change that not every worker could or would han- dle easily. “Many of our members are senior people and are just not physically capable of going out there to prune trees or clear brush,” he adds. “It is really a young person’s game.” Len Dziama, who is a laid off logger from Ali- ford Bay Logging, agrees on this point. “The reality is that the vast majority of the re- maining crew are senior crew and it’s senior people who have been on equipment (and may not be) physically capable to go out and pursue FRBC fund- ed activities like spacing and pruning,” he says. “From a political and a public public perspec- tive, there’s an expectation that Forest Renewal, which was (set up) to improve the forest land base and fix up some of the mistakes of the past, is go- ing to be done by displaced workers,” says Brother Dizama. “I don’t think that anybody has a problem with that in principle.” But he says that, demographically, the Centre is dealing with older crew and with people that have experienced uncertainty concerning work in the future. zs He says that most loggers are uncertain where they will be in 3 years time and that with this limit- ed time, they want to be able to learn new skills to be able to carry them through in a more sustain- able line of work. Starting with a Native land claims issue that be- gan on Meares Island 12 years ago, there has been nothing but uncertainty for workers in the Clay- oquot Region. Continued on page 14 LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER 1996/11 Photo by Al Gudbranson.