Photo by Dan Keeton.

Since opening, the FRBC funded Forest Worker Transition Centre has helped hundred of laid-off workers.

Opportunities provided by transition centre

by Dan Keeton

Layoffs have been hitting the for-
est industry like a plague lately,
with a large brunt borne by workers
in the manufacturing sector. I.W.A.
CANADA has refused to take this
lying down.

For years the union has been
active in industrial adjustment com-
mittees in attempts to retrain work-
ers made redundant by technologi-
cal change and failing markets. The
committees were based in each oper-
ation and involved workers and rep-
resentatives of the federal and

provincial governments in retrain-
ing laid-off workers for new jobs in
the industry.

But these days the reality is that
many will never work in the indus-
try again, and that challenge calls
for newer, more sophisticated mea-
sures. Enter the Forest Workers
Transition Centre.

These are springing up around
the province, including an opera-
tion that works out of the building
of Local 2171 (formerly Local 217)
in Vancouver. Workers continually

sign up for the centre’s services, run

¢ At skills centre, workers take course on tenoner. Left is instructor
Robert Fuerst and on the right is former I.W.A. member Darcy Huntley.

FRBC Centre

Continued from page thirteen

Former Local 217 member Darcy
Huntley, who was permanently laid
off when the Canadian Forest Prod-
ucts Specialties mill closed its doors
in November of last year, is taking
all of the courses being offered at
the centre and should be finished in
November of next year.

Since Canfor did not offer Brother
Huntley and others work in other
operations, those who lost their jobs
are scrambling for other ones.

“A lot of the courses offered here
really open your eyes to the oppor-

’ tunities that are available in the
value-added sector,” he said.

“Now is the time to retrain these
people and a lot want to stay in the
woods products industry,” said Vogt.
“The secondary manufacturing
industry is where it’s at and the pri-

-mary industry is going to be shrink-
ing.”

14/LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1998

Vogt said that some operations
are sending their management
teams through the courses and then

their crews, to add continuity to the *

process.

Stew Buckman, the centre’s safety
coordinator and shop assistant said
that safety is emphasized through-
out the courses and that training is
done in compliance with WCB regu-
lations. The instruction includes
lock out procedures, set-up proce-
dures, working with hazardous
materials, and general safe work
procedures.

“We have to teach them how to do
it correctly and we have to teach
them how to do it safely,” said Buck-
man.

The centre has state-of-the art
equipment ranging from grinders,
fingerjointers, radio frequency
gluers and moulders to cutoff saws,
bandsaws, conveyor systems and
planers.

It also offers an introductory com-
puter course in designing mouldings
using software applications.

by local executive board member
Gary Wong.

“The programs are open to any-
one attached to the industry who
has suffered involuntary job loss,”
stated Wong, “Management, union
and non-union.”

And the centre is busy. “We have
some 1,250 people registered. Of
these, about 900 are eligible, and
there are some 500 active in retrain-
ing right now,” said Wongin a March,
1998 interview.

Nor are those applicants likely to
be the last. The Vancouver area has
been hit hard by layoffs, the most
recent being the Eburne workers at
the Canfor-owned specialty mill in
November. In February, 1996, the
Tolko Inlet Cedar mill laid off sev-
eral workers and the plant closed
forever in March, 1997, putting 148
people out of work. More than 300
were laid off when West Coast Ply-
wood closed its doors in 1995.

The industrial adjustment com-
mittees helped, but often “they had
a hard time just getting up and run-
ning,” says Wong. “It was also diffi-
cult to develop contacts, expertise
and information. So it made sense
to consolidate all that effort on the
retraining function.”

The centre gets funding from For-
est Renewal B.C. for tuition, book
and supplies, and has an arrange-
ment with Human Resources Devel-

wh a!

* Local 2171 officer Gary Wong says the centre’s offices are open to work-
ers who have suffered involuntary job loss. 2

opment Canada. Workers on Em-
ployment Insurance collect benefits
while attending courses at institu-
tions such as BCIT. For El exhaus-
tees, there is funding available for
living and learning expenses up to a
maximum of $20,000.

The centre's clients come from all
sectors of the industry, includin;
sawmill, silviculture, pulp an

aper, and value-added, etc., in the
meee Mainland, Whistler, Squa-
mish and the Sunshine Coast area.
Successful applicants, in the main,
first undergo a choice and options
program to determine their voca-
tional and academic standings.

The centre offers “labour market
information” seminars to help estab-
lish what jobs are available, job
search seminars including help in
skills such as resume writing, and
self-employment seminars. The cen-
tre then develops a “back-to-work
action plan” which usually involves
some sort of retraining. For many
applicants acquiring fluency in the
English language is a must, so the
centre runs several ESL classes.

“We've had some successes
already, but for the most part, peo-
ple are still in the retraining stage,”
Wong related. Among the careers
sought are those in the film indus-
try, cooking and retraining for the
forest industry, including helicopter
pilot training. Some of these courses
are taken at various community
and private colleges.

The centre determines the job
market through maintaining a link
with HRDC. Using the Internet, it
keeps abreast of any jobs posted in
Human Resources offices.“We’re
trying to develop more direct links
with employers, to provide on-the-
job training where there’s some
marketable skill,” said Wong. “We
tend on average to offset wages by
up to 50 per cent, The subsidy
reduces as the person acquires more
training.

“And we’re approaching unions
such as Hotel and Restaurant.
They'll provide us with some leads,
and it gives our trainees a better
opportunity to be gainfully employ-
ed, in union positions.”

The centre currently employees
eight people and it will be expand-
ing, said Wong, himself a former
sawmill and plywood mill worker.
The centre promotes itself through
pamphlets and brochures and has
regular contact with educational
institutions. “Now we’re marketing
our training and programs. We’re
becoming pro-active,” he noted.

The centre can’t be the answer to
all unemployment. But it can and
does make a difference, Wong
asserted.

“Certainly it gives our people a lot
to fall back on. It provides an addi-
tional safety net, and will give some
workers an opportunity to be re-
employed in a decent job.”

Pear STE TEPER TE Mb