e Vern Park beside one of many train loads of private wood that pass by Fort Nelson. The sub-local has
approached Slocan to purchase such wood when there could be any potential fiber shortages.

Fort Nelson

Continued from page twenty-nine

SAWMILL HURT BY MARKETS

Right beside the plywood mill is
the Slocan sawmill, planer and
veneer plant which sorts logs for
their best use. The operation
employs about 287 union members
when they are running full shifts.

The peeler stock is sent to the
lathe while the saw logs are put
through either part of a two line
system which produces both dimen-
sion lumber and studs from
spruce/pine/fir logs.

The planer can process up to
215,000 board feet per 8 hour shift
but normally runs between 200-
205,000.

The vast percentage of the lum-
ber produced is shipped to the United
States at commodity prices which
are under the softwood lumber agree-
ment.

As most of the Japanese market
for lumber has evaporated, the com-

any is stuck selling its wood at

ottomed out prices. It also lost a
market for pre-drilled stud ship-
ment to the U.S. when the U.S. Cus-
toms reclassified such sales as
dimension lumber sales in early
duly.

LOGGING AND TIMBER SUPPLY

Slocan Forest Products enjoys the
single largest area of timber supply
in the entire province. The Fort Nel-
son Forest District covers a star-
tling 8.5 million hectares of land, of

which 5.7 million hectares is opera-
ble timber.

The company uses mostly non-
union owner/operators which log
predominately in the winter months.
The population of Ft. Nelson usu-

ally swells by about 1,000 people to
6,500 in the winter when logging
contractors and oil riggers flood into
town. Those independent owner
operators are difficult, if not impos-
sible to organize.

(Here) ROCK

——

CALGARY

y

° Al Bojarski, chairman at the plywood plant, said that the Fort Nelson
crew is connected to the rest of the L.W.A.

Train loads of private wood pass
through Fort Nelson on their way to
southern markets from private lands
in the Yukon and Northwest Terri-
tories. ‘

That became a problem last year
when the I.W.A. approached com-
pany president Ike Barber to pur-
chase some of that wood when the
Tackama operation was running
out of logs.

Barber committed to curing wood
shortage problems, caused by milder
winters which cut down on Slocan’s
own ability to access wood through
its contractors.

LABOUR RELATIONS IMPROVE

“Labour relations are getting bet-
ter,” says Brother Rod Park, a Local
1-424 officer who is Vern’s younger
brother.

“We've managed to hold commu-
nications meetings with manage-
ment once a month to keep posted.
We go for grievance meetings once a
month as well.”

He says that both management
and labour try to sit down to deal
with problems before they become
big issues.

“The quicker we can deal with an
issue, especially a grievance, the
better it is for all concerned — the
individual or group in question, the
union and the company.”

He also points out to one area
where both sides have made progress

-— the areas of apprentices in the

mills.

In the last set of negotiations the
union negotiating committee go the
company to agree to a new program
to train apprentices.

“They (Slocan) were having a hard
time keeping people here, way up in
the North,” he says. “They (trades-
men) would come here for 3-4 years,
make their buck and move on down
South somewhere.

“Tt was hard to talk Slocan into
an apprentice program at first but
they are seeing how it is working
now.”

Of the 8 apprentices that have
gone through the program to date,
all but one have stayed with the
company.

“These guys know the mill and
know the industry and are showing
a long-term commitment here,” he
adds.

WORKING IN THE I.W.A.

Because Fort Nelson is so iso-
lated, you’d think so too would the
workers consider they are isolated
from the rest of the I.W.A.

Not so, says Al Bojarski, plant
chairman at the plywood operation.

“Just because we live here way up
north doesn’t mean we don’t feel
like part of the local,” he says. “We
choose to be here because there’s
good work and we like the lifestyle.”

He says the local union is doing a
commendable job in bringing work-
ers together from all over the local
with annual meetings and educa-
tional classes.

Colin Maclsaac, plant chairman
at the sawmill, planer and veneer
plant, says that over the past couple
of years the Fort Nelson crew has

. improved contacts with the local

union and has had more contacts
with the national office.

“We are getting a little more recog-
nition now and this helps create
more solidarity in the workplace,”
he says.

“There’s a growing recognition
amongst our members, and now
even more with the younger people,
that we are a national union.”

Vern Park adds: “We’re seeing a
higher profile for the I.W.A. at both
the local and national union levels
and that helps keep pride in our
union despite all of the cutbacks we
have faced lately.

“It all helps us keep focused on
the jobs of other members out there
and not just our own,” he says.

30/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1998