FRBC Value-Added Skills
centre opens in Abbotsford

One of Forest Renewal B.C.’s initia-
tives recently came on line this year
when an official Value-Added Skills
Centre opened. A new facility to train
workers on skills needed in secondary
wood products manufacturing was of-
ficially kicked off by Dave Zirnhelt,
Minister of Forests, on October 7.

The education and training facility
is located in Abbottsford, B.C. in the
Fraser Valley and will be open for en-
rollment on a first come, first served
basis. So far the centre hasn’t adver-
tised and is already receiving enroll-
ment applications.

FRBC has budgeted the centre with
$10 million to be spent over the next 5
years. About $2.2 million will be spent
in the first year and $1.8 million
should be spent in each of the remain-
ing years of the centre’s mandate, in
which it is hoped that up to 600 stu-
dents will receive instruction.

The course work will be designed
for all workers - both those who al-
ready work in value-added manufac-
turing and those who don’t have any
experience in the sector.

There will be two courses offered.
The first is a basic wood machinist
certification and the other is a more
advanced master wood machinist cer-
tification.

The courses will deal with practical
training modules in six different ar-
eas. They are mouling, basic wood
technology, gluing basics, optimizing
wood saws, sawing technology and
fingerjointing.

All course work will be geared to-
wards the adult learner, says Peter
Vogt, Manager at the centre.

“We will spend about 20% of the
time in the classroom and the other
80% out on the shop floor where stu-
dents will get practical hands-on ex-
perience,” says Mr. Vogt. “The class-
room time should be broken down
into half-hour sessions, geared for
practical applications.”

Since the courses will be one-week
in length, it is important that as much
time as possible be spend on equip-
ment.

The courses were developed from a
needs analysis developed by the B.C.
Wood Specialties Group, which is an
industry association of lumber reman-

ufacturers. The association has a
training and education body which
worked on courses that are needed in
the industry. Skill profile charts were
used to develop the cirriculum.

At the end of the week-long cours-
es, students will receive an official
“passport certification” that they can
present to perspective employers.

Mr. Vogt says that the centre will
have overhead administration costs of
about 7% which is much lower than
post-secondary instituations where
administration can eat up to 40% of
budgets.

“We will try to be very responsive
to the needs of the students and will
not put up barriers to the training of
workers,” he says.

Whether or not students have their
grade 12 or even if they have dropped
out prior to finishing high school, the
courses will deal with individual
learning levels.

And as interest hopefully grows, the
classes should start up accordingly.
Vogt adds that if there are sufficient
numbers of students interested, that
evening and back-to-back courses
may be put on.

Most importantly, FRBC is provid-
ing a Student Access Fund, which will
pay for transportation, room and
board for B.C. residents who live out-
side the Hope-Vancouver corridor. Tu-
ition is also waved for B.C. residents
as the tab will be picked up by FRBC.

The centre is aiming to put four dif-
ferent groups of workers through it.
One is people already working in the
value-added sector who are in need of
skills upgrading. Another is unem-
ployed forest workers as deemed so
by FRBC.

The courses will also be available to
workers who have a guarantee of em-
ployment after training. The other cat-
egory is workers from outside B.C.
who will be charged a tuition fee of
about $100 per day.

Ron Corbeil, FRBC coordinator at
the I.W.A. CANADA national office in
Vancouver, says that local unions
should be aware of the value-added
centre and endeavour to be first in
line as the courses are filled on a first
come, first serve basis.

Gary Wong, First Vice President of

° Posing for a photo near fingerjointer are Local 1-3567's Larry Kaila from the
Interfor Adjustment Committee, Local 217 Job Placement Coordinator Gord
Willis, I.W.A. FRBC Coordinator Ron Corbeil, Local 217 First Vice President
Gary Wong, and Skills Centre Manager Peter Vogt.

Vancouver Local 217, says that the
Abbotsford Centre is an example of
how FRBC can deliver critical ser-
vices to the union membership at a
period of time where workers are fac-
ing more and more plant closures and
uncertainty over layoffs. Skills up-
grading is a definite must for many
workers who want to prolong their ca-
reers in the forest industry.

In Local 217 there have been more
than 500 I.W.A. members seeking as-
sistance from Industrial Adjustment
Service committees after they have
been permanently laid off during the
Jast couple of years.

Workers have been thrown out of
work at West Coast Plywood, Prem-
door Industries (formerly Sauder
Door) and Tolko Inlet Cedar Division.

With a permanent shutdown at
West Coast Plywood in the spring of
last year, the local did the best it
could in setting up a Forest Working
Training Program that sought to assist
the members.

Brother Wong says that as the local
helped the workers find training pro-
grams, many of them were running
out of unemployment insurance bene-
fits and could not afford to take re-

training and sit in classes when there
was inadequate or little income com-
ing in.

Wong expects that to change with
FRBC assistance which will provide
adequate funding to programs.

Local 217’s Gord Willis, who works
out of local union headquarter as a
job placement coordinator for laid off
employees of Premdoor and Tolko,
says that without FRBC programs,
things would be a lot tougher.

Brother Willis, who himself had 20
years in the industry, says that work-
ers experience a great range of emo-
tions when they experience layoffs
and some believe that their jobs will
eventually start up again.

“It’s hard for people to accept that
they are not going to get called back,
so they have to plan for another ca-
reer, either inside or outside the for-
est industry,” says Willis.

Willis believes that the skills centre
in Abbotsford may be a good option
for Local 217 members.

“Tt offers some opportunity for our
members to get out there and get a leg
up on jobs coming up in the value-
added sector,” he says.

I.W.A. Poll

Continued from page seven

PERSONAL SECURITY,
COMMUNITY CONCERNS

When asked to compare their own
economic situation to that of their
community, survey respondents were
more likely to say that their own situ-
ation has improved than has that the
situation of their community. While 41
percent felt the economic situation
for their community has worsened
over the past five years and only 29
percent said it had improved, 42 per-
cent said their own situation has im-
proved and only 25 percent believed it
has worsened.

The researchers found sharp re-

eel

Pacific Forest Products
Continued from page three

ering all of the company’s logging and
sawiill operations in British Colum-
bia. This move was made to counter
the company’s strategy to get a cheap-
er agreement by dismantling the asso-
ciation bargaining process.

Although the LRB has not set any
hearing dates for the I.W.A. applica-
tion, with MacMillan Bloedel 's
lawyers objecting to both the bargain-
ing council and the application, a
lengthy hearing can be anticipated.

gional variations in the response to
these questions: in the Interior, for in-
stance, fully 50 percent believe their
own situation had improved; on the
Lower Mainland only 28 percent saw
an improvement, while 35 percent
said it has worsened.

Generally, this regional variation
was consistant through the survey,
Viewpoints analyst Leslie Turnbull
noted: while union members in the In-
terior are more likely to be positive,
those in the Lower Mainland or on
Vancouver Island appear more pes-
simistic.

Occupationally, loggers are more
likely to be pessimistic than sawmill
workers or others, Turnbull said. As
well she pointed out, those who are
most concerned about their communi-
ties are also most likely to be con-
cerned about job security.

INDUSTRY VS. GOVERNMENT

When those surveyed were asked to
rank the job done by both the B.C.
government and forest companies,
both scored relatively high in the ar-
eas of managing the forests and work-
er health and safety. But both got
roughly failing grades for their perfor-
mance on reinvesting in the forest in-
dustry and creating jobs. On job cre-
ation, 35 percent of respondants said
forest companies are doing a “terri-
ble” job; 32 percent said government's
performance is “terrible.”

This was reflected in responses to
the province’s Forest Renewal Pro-

gram: the vast majority agreed that
the job creation agency “is as good
idea but it has not created very many
new jobs”; only 12 percent disagreed.
Even more, fully 81 percent, agree
that FRBC “should do more to ensure
that the jobs it creates are secure,
high-paying union jobs.”

Turning to government priorities,
I.W.A. members indicate that the top
job for provincial politicians should
be protecting medicare. Next was
“providing quality education for young
people”; far down in importance was
“reducing the provincial debt and
deficit.”

The survey was taken shortly be-
fore a provincial election campaign in
which protection of health and educa-
tion was a strong platform of the gov-
ering New Democratics, while debt
and deficit cutting were priorities of
the opposition Liberals.

UNION CONCERNS

When asked their opinion of I.W.A.
CANADA’s performance, those sur-
veyed gave best grades to the union
for “fighting for improved health and
safety on the job,” with 61 percent
grading the union excellent or good
and only 15 percent judging its perfor-.
mance on safety as only fair or satis-
factory.

Next highest marks were for pro-
tecting against contracting out; han-
dling grievances and negotiating
wages and benefits.

Survey respondants were less gen-

erous in the areas of dealing with
land-use issues and communication
with members, with responses split
about evenly in those areas, while
only 28 percent gave good or excel-
lent marks in the area of protecting
against layoffs; 48 percent ranked per-
formance there as only fair or poor.

Job security emerged as a major pri-
ority for future negotiations, with 73
percent ranking it “extremely impor-
tant” in a list of six possible priorities
for upcoming contract negotiations;
improving pensions (67 percent), im-
proving workplace safety (60), im-
proving extended health benefits (47),
improving hourly rates (31) and in-
creasing paid time off (27), followed.

Not surprisingly, when asked who
is doing the best job within the organi-
zation, those surveyed were most like-
ly to give best marks to those closest
to hand: while 20 percent gave “excel-
lent” ratings to members of their local
plant committee and 24 gave top ap-
proval to their local plant or camp
safety committee, members of the lo-
cal union executive were seen as do-
ing an excellent job by only 15 per-
cent and members of the national
union executive by only 9 percent.

Turnbull noted that the more dis-
tant the body, the more ambivalent
workers are about that body's perfor-
mance. As a result, more respondants
said they had no opinion about nation-
al office or their local executive than
about plant or camp bodies.

TG, ml;:, ;rl:-::_/-,:_,:_,,, ,,,,
LUMBERWORKER/NOVEMBER 1996/15