ex ° The Flavelle mill sits on a valuable piece of real estate at the end of Bur- rard Inlet in Port Moody. Flavelle Cedar Continued from page three bring in outsiders the local went to the Labour Relations Board at the end of April to argue an illegal lock- out. The case continued into July. UNION SAYS CLOSURE CLAIMS FALSE Both Interfor and Industry consul- tant Peter Woodbridge say that the Flavelle mill is not viable. The union says it is. Both the company and Wood- bridge say Flavelle lacks timber sup- ply, lacks a U.S. duty-free export quota and has too many technical difficulties. The union says those are lame excuses. Interfor cuts more than enough wood to supply Flavelle. It built a small log mill with the future in mind — as its timber profile is changing towards smaller logs. It was built to run small white wood logs (fir, hemlock, spruce) as well as cedar. For years when it did not have enough cedar, it swapped white wood for cedar in the log market, which is now flush with oversupply. And what’s with exporting 330,000 cubic meters and saying there are not enough logs to go to Flavelle? Local president Sonny Ghag said that Interfor has not lost any more timber since it closed three mills — Bay Lumber, Pioneer Lumber and McDonald Cedar — all gone by late 1997. In its tree farm licence #38 it cut 260,000 cubic meters in 1995 and it will cut the same this year as part of its 2.8 million cubic meter annual allowable cut. As for market access, Flavelle had 36 million board feet of U.S. quota when it was run by Weldwood and Interfor has reallocated that quota to other mills. That figure, obtained anony- mously from Interfor management, was entered into evidence and not challenged by the company at the Labour Relations Board hearing on the alleged lock-out. Brother Ghag said the quota must go back to Flavelle. Elsewhere on the Coast neither Hammond Cedar, or MacMillan Bloedel’s cedar divisions (New West- minster Lumber Division, Canada White Pine, or Somass Division) have suffered downtime during the Asian collapse. All have sold their cedar products, with or without quota. As for the “technical” issue that Flavelle has serious equipment problems, the double-length infeed system that feeds into a canter/quad saw is not rocket science. According to Moe Walls, former technical advisor for the I.W.A’s evaluation department, there are 50-60 sawmills in the Interior of B.C. that use such technology. Kilty said the workers were told that the Flavelle mill was to be a sure money maker that would start out with medium sized small logs down to a 9” - 14” top. It would even- tually handle logs down to 4” - 7.” Brother Kilty said that the Que- bec based firm Multimeg, the soft- ware supplier for the small log mill, and Interfor had a falling out over payment for software and the ser- vices rendered. The workers got stuck in the middle. Interfor didn’t think it should pay its tab for what it was getting. “Tf you don’t pay the bill you’re not going to get the support,” said Kilty. “If you don’t get the support you can’t fix the machinery.” By mid-February of this year, the mill was ready for a test run which never happened. Kilty said no viable explanation was given. “When a company like Interfor introduces new technology there is always a break-in period,” said Brother Walls. “These periods are usually solved ickly. I don’t know ha ort this of technology which has not worked effectively.” : If the mill is to run cedar, it has. software to handle cedar. The same goes for any other species. Altho' some cedar may be more unstable than white woods, there are usually manual overrides built into the pro- cessing system. OBVIOUS QUESTIONS NEED ANSWERING “The forests minister has to get to the bottom of this,” said Brother Haggard. “Zirnhelt has to wrap his head around the issues surrounding Flavelle.” Local union member Gerry Gower, himself a former plant chair at Flavelle said the government has to ask some obvious questions. “Why is it (Flavelle) non-viable?,” he said. “Why did Interfor close it down, reallocate its quota and what kind of input is behind the Wood- bridge report that the government seems to accept? “Did we as people of British Columbia get justice on the transfer of (Weldwood’s) fibre to that com- pany (Interfor) or was it strictly the concentration of raw resources in the hands of one company?” He said that both the Squamish and Flavelle plant where successful plants with large fibre supplies. Said Gower: “Corporations just can’t come in pal swallow up another company to strip an opera- tion’s annual allowable fibre supply and lumber quota and then call the operation unviable.” e Photo, taken from Burrard Inlet in early 1995, when the Flavelle cedar mill still handled big logs. EET == ¢ GOING FISHING is retired national organizer Harold Sachs (left) seen here accepting a portable fish finder from National Fourth Vice President Norm Rivard at a retirement party for Brother Sachs, organizer Rene Brixhe, and Local 500 financial secretary Irvin Baetz. See story page ten. arene ies cose 28/LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1999 Photo by Tom Lowe We Need a 1 te I.W.A. has changed a lot over the years and now it’s time to 1 give our national newspaper a new name. So it’s a contest. If you are an LW.A. CANADA member in good standing and you can think of a new name for the Lumberworker, which reflects the national identity and diversity of our union, you can win a prize. No prize has been decided yet but it will be a good one}! Enter as many names as you want. If the same winning name is submitted by more than one contestant, the first entry received will be judged the winner! Deadline is October 31, 1999. Winner will be picked by editorial board. NAME New Name ‘ADDRESS AND PHONE. LOCAL UNION AFFILIATE NUMBER a PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT, CHOICE OF NEW NAME(S) FOR NEWSPAPER, Please mail entry to: Harvey Arcand, National Second Vice President LW.A. CANADA, 500 - 1285 West Pender Street Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4B2 Bee owe