Finlay mills
Continued from page thirty

from five remote camps on both sides
of Williston Lake that range in size
from 42-190 workers. Over two-
thirds of the logs are towed down the
lake in booms while the remaining
‘portions arrive on off-highway

TUCKS. A vf the logging anerations,
which are split into prime contrac-
tors and individual sub-contractors
that have between 12-30 people, are
non-union.

The logs that are towed down the
lake are dewatered near the mill
with a giant Colby crane (see photo).
On a 10-12 hour shift there will be
about 120 truck loads that run
between the dewatering area and the
mill yard.

The mills process mainly two inch
lumber, ranging from 2 x 4’s to 2.x
10’s. Site Two produces about
400,000 finished board feet on an 8
hour shift. It has a chip and saw
infeed system and a quad saw as
well. The mill works five days and
week on three shifts per day and
keeps four dry kilns stoked all the
time.

Both its mill and planer parts have
64 J-bar bins which sort for size and
grade, including Machine Stress
Rated Lumber (MSR) which brings
» ao additional $100 per 1000 board
feet.

The planer lumber will go through
a photocell system that gives pres-
sure readings and paints the lumber
blue or red for the MSR bins. Those
coloured pieces pass through an addi-
tional visual grading inspection
which can keep up to the planer
speed.

_ About 43% of both mills’ produc-
tion is white spruce, 37% is lodgepole
Pine and about 20% is balsam. __

The mill has its own reload facility
which will handles 6-7 seventy-three
foot cars a day, each one carrying
between 110,000 and 112,000 board
feet of lumber, marketed under the
trade mark “Finlay Premium” kiln
dried spruce, pine, and fir either

i to customers in the United
States or Canada. Some volume goes
to reload centres south of MacKenzie.

The original FFI Site One mill,
built in late 1960’s has taken
More shift reductions since the Asian
collapse in 1997. But it has bucked

¢ Pulling bands over flatcar of lumber is car blocker Bruce Rosler.

the industry trend of temporary
shutdowns. At that time it was ship-
ping about 8-10% of its production to
Japan as “J-grade” lumber. The orig-
inal mill was refurbished in 1987. It
has three saws on its log deck that
feed into a chip and saw and a can-
ter-quad saw which then feed into a
single line system.

Ben Olynyk a tradesman who was
worked at the mill since 1969 told the
Lumberworker in an interview last
year that the mill has seen both good
and bad times and that the company
has to do more upgrading to prevent
the operation from going back into
the hole again.

Plant chairman Kelly Rommel
says that, although capital expendi-
tures are necessary, the members
want to work with the company to
maintain employment levels.

“I think it (modernization) is

2 British Columbia ||”

3 > MACKENZIE SUBLOGAL
97-3934

mandatory but we want to become
more productive without job loss,” he
said.

Of the total amount to be invested,
the company is putting about $6 mil-
lion into a general upgrading of the
Site One mill.

Former plant chair John Zuehlke,
now a local union business agent,
says that the union is growing in
strength in MacKenzie. He says that
the local union has promoted educa-
tion, health and safety and aware-
ness on union issues.

He moved up to MacKenzie in 1989
when he was laid off at the B.C. For-
est Products Youbou mill on Vancou-
ver Island. He has seen the union
grow in strength over the years.

“Up here we mostly solve our own
problems,” he said. “MacKenzie is a
very good union town and we are try-
ing to get more and more younger
people involved in union activities.
They are the future of the union

e Outside the I.W.A.’s sub-local office is business agent John Zuehlke.

movement and the I.W.A. up here.”

In 1989 the union opened up a sub-
local office with the assistance of
then national organizing director
John Smithies.

Workers in MacKenzie come from
all over Canada. Site Two plant
chairman Alf Wilkins, like many,
came out to work in B.C: from New-
foundland. He said that today there
are over 100 original Newfoundlers
in the community working in the var-
ious mills. Those people know about
the I.W.A.’s valiant efforts to orga-
nize Newfoundland loggers in the
late 1950’s — an effort that was met
with government interference and
police attacks. “I think the members
here from Newfoundland do identify
with the I.W.A. and the many stories
around that strike,” said Wilkins.
“Everybody knows that that is part of
Newfoundland’s history and are now
proud to be I.W.A. members in B.C.”

» Most of the logs for both mills are towed down Williston Lake and are taken to the sites by trucks that are loaded

with a giant Colby crane.

LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1999/31