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Stacker operator Steve Strasy at the high speed Fort St. John sawmill.

e At Fort St. John are Steve Bedell (1.) and local board member Ron Wagner.

Northern mills are Canfor’s money makers

Canadian Forest Products is very
profitable outfit — so profitable that it
put together an $805 million deal to
take over Northwood Inc., and
become the single largest producer of
lumber in B.C. (see article this page).

“When we get to the bargaining

in the 2000 the last thi
anfor can do is cry poverty,” sai
Local 1-424 president Fred Carroll.
“They have lasted out the recession in
the lumber industry and are getting
even bigger.”

While Canfor closed its Eburne
sawmill in Vancouver in March of last
year, it has focused a great deal of its
efforts on lumber production in the
northern Interior.

Two of the major contributors to
~ Canfor’s burgeoning bottom line are

sawmills in Fort St. John and

Chetwynd, north east of Local 1-424’s

Resdquarters in Prince George.

Both are highly preauctive opera-
tions that specialize in two inch
dimension lumber. The Fort St. John
operation is one of the company’s flag-

© Local 1-424 members at the Chetwynd operation are (1.) spare man Jeff
Spenst and floor grader Neal Meyer.

ship producers while the Chetwynd
mill is also a very efficient two line
mill that has seen more down time
when markets softened.

About 75% of the production from
Fort St. John is sold into the U.S. to
home improvement retailer Lowes
Home Improvment Warehouse,
which has some 425 outlets spread
throughout the eastern seaboard,
mid-west and deep south.

The two line chip and saw mill
duces over 325,000 finished bo:
an 8 hour shift. It will take spruce,
pine and fir logs up to 30 inches at the
butt and put through 4,000 logs a
shift. The operation goes on two 8
hours shifts, five days a week with
staggered maintenance schedules.

It produces everything from 2 x 4 -
8’ to 2 x 10 - 20°. In addition to the
American market, it also produces J”
grade lumber for Japan.

The mill’s graders use fluorescent
chalk which is picked up by optical
scanners which override a multi-trim
saw. Each trim block of wood that can

rO-

be recovered is gathered for shipment
to mills in Clear Lake and Grand
Prairie Alberta. This adds 2-1/2 - 3
percent to overall recovery.

Canfor has spent a great deal of
time, effort and money in making the
work stations more ergonomically
sound. In some vibrating areas of the
mill (e.g. the stacker) the floor is com-
pletely suspended on rubberized
mounts and an additional rubberized
matting has been applied. Among
other areas modified are the cut-off
saw and debarker.

Local executive board member Ron
Wagner, said that industrial relations
in the plant are very good and that
both the union plant committee and
management have been able to reach
out to each other and agree on how
the plant should be managed.

“They (the company) certainly listen
to what we have to say and they are

not hard to deal with,” added Wagner.
In Chetwynd, there has been a leaning
out of management over the past few
years. At one point plant chairman
Jeff Hecker said there was a manage-
ment/worker ratio of about 1:5.

The sub-local has been concerned
over the issue of using chargehands
for purely management functions.

“They can’t have the best of both
worlds,” said Hecker when the Lum-
berworker went through the plant last
year. Although the mill took about 6
weeks of down time last year, this
year has provided steadier work.

The mill can produce between
350,000 - 450,000 board feet of two
inch dimension lumber on an 8-9-1/2
hour shifts. Its planer often runs 10-
1/2 and 9 hour shift on days and after-
noons respectively. The operation will
also produce 1 x 4 and 1 x 6 to
increase recovery.

Canfor takes over Northwood

The latest merger to hit B.C. was
the August 26 announcement that
Canfor Corp. is taking over North-
wood Inc. by purchasing its shares
from Mead Corp. and Nexfor Inc.
The move will give Canfor’s operat-
ing company, Canadian Forest Prod-
ucts, another 3.4 million cubic
meters of annual allowable cut, four
more sawmills, a plywood plant and
pulp mill.

The merger would concentrate
about 30% of the timber supply in
the Prince George region in Canfor’s
hands and give it about 11% of the
province’s timber supply.

Three of the Northwood sawmills
are I.W.A. Local 1-424 operations,
employing about 715 union mem-
bers — the Prince George sawmill,
the Upper Fraser division and
Northwood Houston. The company
operates the non-union Rustad mill
in Prince George and North Central
Plywood, certified to the Commmu-
nication, Energy and Paperworkers
Union.

Local 1-424 president Fred Carroll
said that Canfor CEO David Emer-
son has told the local that the
merger will not effect employment of
either Canfor or Northwood employ-
ees right now and it could be up to
one year before a full review of oper-

ations is done. Job losses are more
likely to occur in administration as
the company plans to elimate about
150 positions through attrition or
early retirement.

“We heard rumours that there
was going to be a deal between the
two companies and that one was
going to take the mills and the other
the pulp operations,” added Brother
Carroll. “It was a surprise when
Canfor went for all of Northwood.”

The $805 million takeover con-
sists will make Canfor the third
largest lumber producer in North
America, with annual lumber pro-
duction of 2.4 billion board feet.
Northwood mills will produce 1.1 bil-
lion of that. Only Georgia Pacific
and Weyerhauser produce more
lumber in North America.

Canfor has its woods and manu-
facturing operations in B.C. and .
Alberta and has a reman plant in
Washington state.

The new combined company will

‘employ 7,200 workers of which

about 5,000 are from Canfor opera-
tions.

The local union represents mill
workers at Canfor operations in Fort
St. John, Chetwynd, Isle Pierre, Fort
St. James, and the Polar operation
in Bear Lake.

LUMBERWORKER/SEPTEMBER, 1999/17