¢ At the B.C. Federation of Labour convention on November 30, I.W.A. Local 1-80’s message was well seen and support from the provincial labour body

was solid.

[.W.A. members fight to save Youbou mill

t’s the battle for Youbou. And the men
and women who work at the Timber-

West Forest Corp.’s Cowichan Lumber-
mill in the quiet southern Vancouver
Island town know they are in the scrap
of their life.

They are in a fight with a company that
intends to close the profitable operation down,
keep the public Tree Farm License attached to
it, and get rid of federal log export restrictions
on private lands.

is is not your average mill closure.

“In the I.W.A. we have seen many, many mill
closures over the years and in all parts of the
country,” says national union president Dave
Haggard. “But wrapped up in the Youbou mat-
ter are many complex issues, the most impor-
tant of which are the fact the TimberWest is
pulling the plug on a profitable operation with a
bright future. It’s a mill that our members have
successfully struggled to make competitive.”

The mill site has been in operation for over 80
years, and was one of the first sawmills certified
into the I.W.A. Its roots go deep in the commu-
nity and deep into union history.

“It’s a real shocking story,” says Local 1-80
president Bill Routley, who points out the fact

that TimberWest harvests about 2.4 million
cubic meters of logs from its private land and

For
S

The Fight

has Crown land harvesting rights of 1.2 million
cubic meters.

“They want to shut down their last remaining
large sawmill on southern Vancouver Island
and keep their rights to cut on crown land,” said

¢ Local 1-80 business agent Rick Whiteford addresses Youbou crew in a mill lunchroom. The work-
ers are united in their campaign to save Youbou.

6/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 2000

Routley. “It only takes less than 500,000 cubic
meters of logs to make Youbou operate ata
profit and they want to shut the operation down
for good.”

Routley says the mill has been viewed by the
Forest Jobs Commission as being in the top
quartile of hemlock/fir operations.

“This is not the lowest mill on the totem pole
that ought to be shut down,” Routley told the
Lumberworker. “It’s outrageous. If they can do
this it’s wide open for the corporations to close
mills and keep their TFL’s.”

“I really think that the end-game for Timber-
West is that they’re not upset to maintain the
rights to the TFL and that they would argue in

court, against the government if it tries to take
away the license,” he said.

OTHER “DEALS” FALL THROUGH

In August of 1999, then TimberWest CEO
Scott Folk met with the Youbou crew and said
the company would fix the mill (there had been
no significant capital put into the operation
since the mid-90’s), sell it or close it.

“As is turns out that (closing it) has been
their only option, it (TimberWest) had no real
intention of fixing or selling it,” said former
plant chairman and local union business agent
Rick Whiteford. s

On October 25, Scott Folk called at meeting at
the Youbou Hall in Youbou and told the crew
that their jobs would be terminated at the end
of January, 2001, thereby ending months of
speculation of what the company might do.

But in December of 1999 the company
announced that it intended to sell the mill and
told the I.W.A. that there were seven interest
buyers. 40

The bidding process was open for a week to
days before Timber West announced that it was
into a period of exclusivity with J.S. Jones.

“Most of the other bidders, at least the ones
we've talked to, didn’t even have a chance to
properly put in a bid in because there wasn’ t
enough time,” said Whiteford.

Who were the other bidders?

“We don’t know and they won’t tell us, added
Whiteford. “They (TimberWest) say that every-
body that wanted to buy the mill wanted to
close it down.”

Whiteford said the locas peliotes the Jones
arrangement was “pre-cooked.” E

That deal, which fell through in May of this
year, saw Jones closing the mill and turning
around and buying the CIPA mill in Nanaimo.
Jones said it would take 40 Youbou crew and
put them in Nanaimo and run the planer at

oubou for a certain length of time with 40
workers.

There were some minor offers made to enhance
pensions of some workers and an effort by Jones

continued on page seven