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¢ I.W.A. CANADA National President Dave Haggard (centre) attended rally and pledged full support for Local 217 members from Canfor’s Eburne mill.

Canfor’s Eburne closure plan raises |.W.A.’s protest

here were some very

upset I.W.A. members

in late November after

Canadian Forest Prod-

ucts (Canfor) announced

that they intend to
permanently close their Eburne
sawmill in Vancouver.

About 100 union members were
assembled at a downtown rally out-
side Canfor’s headquarters to pub-
licly tell the company that they
must use their coastal log supply to
run the Eburne sawmill operation
or facing losing their Tree Farm
License 37 on Vancouver Island.

Canfor harvests about 1.4 million
cubic meters on the TFL and another
100,000 ona
forest license.
They only have
to keep one |]
sawmill going
- and that’s
Eburne.

But itis Can-
for’s intention
to completely
drop the
Eburne mill by
March 26 of
1998 and focus
entirely on
their giant pulp
mill partnership, Howe Sound Pulp
and Paper, with Oji Paper Co. of
Japan.

It takes about 400,000 of Canfor’s
annual coastal cut of 1.5 million
cubic meters to run the Eburne mill
for a year. The mill, which employs
about 200 Local 217 members, can
use up to 500,000 cubic meters a
year when it’s running full tilt.

The official reason for the closure
announcement given by Canfor
chairman Peter Bentley is that the
company faces a log shortage.

That couldn’t be further from the
truth. Canfor has a log over abun-
dance and is trying to desert the
solid wood sector.

At the rally Local 217 President
Gary Kobayashi said that Canfor is
“using a public resource that is
owned by all of the people in British
Columbia.”

Kobayahsi said that the “Eburne
crew is determined to stop this
unnecessary closure.”

e Gary Kobayashi

He said that the I.W.A. has talked
to Canfor management and that the
company has made it clear that it
does not intend to operate Eburne
past next March or build a new facil-
ity to employ the Eburne workers.

“Eburne wants to throw our mem-
bers on the garbage heap and we
will not put up with it,” said
Kobayashi. “The truth is that Can-
for wants to harvest their logs and
sell them on the open log market. If
we don’t stop this at Eburne, other
companies will follow suit and it’s
going to spread across the province.”

Local 217 points out that Canfor
says it Howe Sound pulp mill is run-
ning out of logs, despite their 1996
annual report which states that
“...Canfor has in place sufficient
fibre to run its pulp mills, kraft
paper and newsprint mills at capac-
ity for the foreseeable future.”

1.W.A. National President Dave
Haggard spoke at the rally and said
the national union will be working
with the local union to do every-
thing possible to pressure the provin-
cial government to intervene on
behalf of the Eburne workers.

Harry Bains, First Vice President
of Local 217, said that the Forest
Acts were not put together to allow
and TFL holder to hold onto its
tenure and not run a manufactur-
ing plant.

“Forests companies were granted
TFL’s in order to provide employ-
ment and stabilize communities,”
he said.

The local and national union have
called upon Forests Minister Dave
Zirnhelt to review TFL 37 and take
measures if Canfor is in violation of
their license.

The minister has the power to
reduce Canfor’s annual allowable
cut or take all the timber away.

The company was awarded the
TFL in 1960 and, in its application,
committed to continue all of its man-
ufacturing operations.

It has closed two mills in the Lower
Mainland in previous years and
moved value added production to
Oregon and Bellingham, Washing-
ton.

“While many lumber producers
have gone for more value added in
the province, Canfor is headed in

the opposite direction,” said
Kobayashi.

Loggers’ Local President Darrel
Wong was at the rally to address
the members, whose local will merge
with Local 1-71 in February of next
year.

“There is absolutely no reason for
closing Eburne down,” he said. “For
them to turn around and not have
any primary manufacturing facili-
ties on the Coast is unacceptable.
The bottom line (of Canfor) is corpo-
rate greed.”

Brother Wong said the loggers
and sawmill workers of Local 1-71
are “100 percent on side and will be
peere to support you all the way on
this.”

Local 1-71 Business Agent Rick
McRae, accompanied by Jeff Pazik,
the union chairman at Eburne, went
to all of the Canfor operations on
Vancouver Island to get the unani-
mous support of over 600 loggers at
Woss, Nimpkish and Beaver Cove.

“We did not believe that Canfor

would actually try to shut down
Eburne because they would be
putting their TFL in jeopardy.” said
Pazik. “We have done our homework
and we know that the company has
more than enough wood to run the
sawmill. They can sell one saw log
for the value of three pulp logs.”

Brother McRae told the Lumber-
worker that TFL 37 has the best
growing sites and the highest grade
white woods (fir, spruce, hemlock
and balsam) in the province.

“It’s not a fibre supply issue, it’s a
pulpwood issue,” he said. “Canfor
has some of the best sawlogs on the
coast and not enough pulp logs to
supply its huge ‘chip hog’ up there
in Howe Sound.”

Despite the oversupply of sawlogs,
Canfor has run the two line (head
rig and chip and saw) mill at under-
capacity for more than a year, lay-
ing off at least 10 people. It is one of
the few mills that kiln dries lumber
over 2 inches.

¢ Union members from Canfor’s only lumber manufacturing plant in B.C.
were shocked by the closure announcement.

6/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1997