hen you listen to Local 1-3567
member Peter Hayes talk about
the work he and his fellow work-
ers do at their plant, you have to
do a double take.

“We’re bottom feeders,” says the 55 year-old
process control processor operator at Canadian
Forest Products Ltd.’s Panel and Fibre Division

~ in New Westminster. “We exist solely on every-
body else’s waste.”

If you compare it to what any other major for-
est company in Canada does, what Canfor pro-
duces is simply amazing.

The 110 person operation takes waste wood
fibre (chips, shavings, sawdust and hogged up
material) and produces value added products.

“That’s what we do,” adds Brother Hayes, who
is the plant chairman and a member of the safety
committee. “We take piles of fibre that would
otherwise be disposed of or burnt and we turn
them into all sorts of products that bring in a
good buck out in the marketplace. It’s a promis-
ing business.”

The plant produces five major lines of products
from wood waste. They are hardboard panels,
plain baled fibres, “eco-fibres,” wood mats and
“agri-mat” products.

If you look at a recreation room there’s a good
chance that the wood grain panels were pro-
duced in the plant. It has been around since
1938 and is celebrating its 60th anniversary this
year.

Originally built to produce wood veneer for
mosquito bombers in the Second World War, the
plant boomed through the war and post war
years.

After the war it produced plywood and started
making hard board products in 1948, as a ply-
wood by-product. At one time it employed over
1,200 union members, being one of the then New
Westminster Local 1-357’s major operations. _

All of the good times came to an abrupt halt in
1985 when the plywood market went belly up
and the plant downsized from 800 workers to
less than 180. A loss of two hard board presses
two years later took the plant to an all-time low
of 60-70 employees.

“Those were some very lean years,” says Brother
Hayes. “We didn’t know which end was up and
we realized the company had to make some
moves to look for new products or we would be
facing the bitter end.” :

In the late 1980’s Canfor bought embossing
plates and trademarks from the Masonite Corpo-

FEEDERS’

While it plans to shut down its Eburne
sawmill that has a secure fibre base,
Canfor’s New Westminister Plant creates
110 jobs just using wood waste. The
union has worked hard to make the panel
and fibre board operation a success.

eG

¢ Local 1-3567 member and plant chairman Peter Hayes stands in
front of a pile of sawmill waste being dumped.

ration, went more seriously into hardboards and
generated more of its own patterns.

Canfor Vice-President and plant manager Jim
Marshall told the Lumberworker “there were
some concerns about whether the plant should
be viable or shouldn’t be shut down. It’s gone
through a lot of ups and downs.”

“Hardboard contributes quite well (to the
plant’s profitability) and will continue to do so
for some years to come,” he added.

Today the hardboard business and other Can-
for value added products are going great guns
and the plant has plans to expand its capacity,
hiring more workers in the process.

Marshall said the company has added 40
hourly employees over the last three years and
that the productive capacity of the plant could
Agee by 50% if the company finds new mar-

ets.

The company has to get out in the market and
drum up more customers. It sets the prices for
its products which do not fluctuate like commod-
ity driven prices (i.e. lumber and pulp and paper).

For the giant Canfor, which employs over
3,000 workers in B.C., it is their only value

added operation outside lumber and pulp and
paper.

‘The company has been embroiled in a dispute
with I.W.A. CANADA Local 2171 over its plans
to shut down its Eburne sawmill division in Van-
couver. (see article on page one).

Local 1-3567 Executive Board member and
business agent Lyle Olson told the Lumber-
worker that a company as big as Canfor has a
duty to create more jobs in the industry and that
it’s work at the panel and fibre division is a good

start.

“What Canfor is doing at their hardboard and
fibre division is a good thing,” he said. “They
have created over 110 jobs out of utilizing wood
waste in New Westminster. Why the company
claims it can’t keep a sawmill going off of a tree
farm licence of over 1.4 million cubic meters is

an absolute mystery.”
Continued on page nine

Pays %

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supervisor Wayne Carpenter.

a

¢ In the control room of the plant are Asplund operator Hayes, trainee operator Ray Jones and shift

‘8/LUMBERWORKER/MARCH, 1998