Fight to save
Youbou a
valiant one

It remains one of the toughest
fights that I.W.A. members any-
where had been in since the fight to
save the Canfor Eburne sawmill in
Vancouver in 1998.

As the issue goes to press, union
members are camped outside the
TimberWest Cowichan Lumbermill
and are repelling the company’s
efforts to dissemble the mill. They
face court injunctions and potential
arrest (see story below).

On January 26 the workers
watched as the company cut what it
would like to be its last log ever.
The crew had fought, since October
of 2000, to pressure the company to
keep the mill open (see Lumber-
worker December, 2000).

With calm demeanor some of the
workers in planer kept going until
February 9 and the shipping crew
was on the job until the end of ther
month when the last load went out.

Despite protests, petitions, ral-
lies, letter writing campaigns and
support from the public, Timber-
West decided to close the Youbou
mill once and for all and keep their
Tree Farm License.

Permanently eliminated by the
company are some 220 jobs and also
at stake are some 600-700 in jobs
related to trucking, dry kilning,
lumber remanning and other spin-
off jobs in the Cowichan Valley and
neighbouring communities.

January 26 was an trying day for
all. The mill had been a mainstay of
the small Vancouver Island commu-
nity for over 80 years. It is rooted

deep into the community’s history
and the I.W.A.’s history.

Local president Bill Routley said
that TimberWest just wants to
export and sell logs and not support
local jobs in sawmilling or value-
added.

“They (TimberWest) have really
thumbed their noses at the commu-
nity — a community which relies on
the wood that is harvested in TFL
and on private lands,” he said.

He added that the company is
abandoning markets for softwood
lumber in Europe and Japan to focus
on log exports. 2

“The company applauded the
workers for turning the mill around
in the past couple of years and now
it is pulling the plug,” he said.

“Guys were carrying out chunks
of the last log that was cut,” says
local union business agent Rick
Whiteford. “It was a real emotional
day for the crew. They held their
heads high and worked right until
the last day.”

The crew and the local kept up
the peccsure and received over-
whelming support from the local
community.

In a last-ditch effort to save the
mill, local union officer Carmen
Rocco put together a proposal for
Timber West. A plan would be put
together for the community and the
workers, through the local Cowichan.
Lake Forest Community Coopera-
tive (CLCFC), to purchase the mill
from the company.

On behalf of the local, Rocco
pointed out that such an arrange-
ment, put together with a sound
business plan, could be a win for all
involved; the community, the work-
ers and for TimberWest.

He got the company’s go ahead to
approach mill manager Neil Dirom
aad others, including staffer George
Donnelly and accountant Ken Grif-
fith, about putting a preliminary

business plan together.

Valiant efforts were made and
the plan was sent off to the com-
pany and the provincial govern-
ment.

At the heart of the proposed busi-
ness plan was a proposition that
the CLCFC, supported by the Town
of Lake Cowichan, businesses, the
local Legion, the I.W.A. and the
locally-based Mount Bullbuck com-
pany, would purchase the opera-
tion.

The CLCFC needed a guaranteed
$9 million loan to buy the mill and
logs required for building inventory.
Eventually another $3 million would
be needed to make tech changes in
the operation, should the operation
intend to expand.

The plan would have seen the
operation run on one shift and, if
more fibre would be available in the
future, another shift could be added.
Eighty to ninety jobs would be saved.

“They offered to sell the mill and
the CLCFC said ‘we want to buy
the mill,” said Brother Whiteford,

¢ In late January Local 1-80 members ran their last full shift at the Cowich:

who originates from the operation.
“They wanted to sell their logs (off
the TFL) and we said ‘we want to
buy the logs at a fair market value.”

Brother Rocco was also successful
in getting money to hire consultant
David Corbin and get a group of
experienced ex-mill people together
to work on the plan.

But TimberWest changed the goal
posts. Although the company said it
was trying to sell the mill only since
December 1999,(negotiations with
J.S. Jones and Mill and Timber
Products Ltd. fell through last year)
the new conditions it set for the
CLCEFC specified that the coopera-
tive would have to buy the mill and
the entire Tree Farm License 46 at
a hefty cost of $33 million.

There’s no way the cooperative
could come up with that type of
money and Timberwest gave a dead-
line for a business plan to be pre-
sented to it by March 23.

“They (TimberWest) basically
said that if we didn’t want to buy
the whole thing, the TFL and the

an Lumbermill in Youbou.

mill, then it’s not for sale to any-
body else but the (the company) is
going to tear down the mill and keep
the TFL,” said Brother Whiteford.

The crew joined community mem-
bers to protest in front of Timber-
West’s headquarters on March 14
in Nanaimo.

On March 19 I.W.A. national pres-
ident Dave Haggard and Local 1-80
president Bill Routley met with
Aboriginal Affairs Minister Dave
Zirnhelt (substituting for Forest
Minister Gordon Wilson) to get the
government to commit to the mill
path financial resources. It wouldn’t

10 1b.

TimberWest wants to keep its
TFL, not run the mill and is pre-
pared to challenge the government
in court, says Whiteford.

Under Section 71 of the Forest
Act the government might be able
take away a portion of the TFL that
was funneled to Youbou over the

continued on page twenty

Workers maintain vigil outside sawmill

As the issue goes to press former
workers of the TimberWest
Cowichan Lumbermill are main-
taining a vigil near the mill site in
Youbou in an effort to thwart the
company from tearing down the
mill.

On April 10 TimberWest sent its
lawyers to a Vancouver courthouse
seeking removal of the former
employees in order that it can dis-
mantle and break up the mill.

But the workers have stood fast.
They have pointed to the fact that
the Attorney General’s office has
appointed a Victoria lawyer to inves-
tigate how a “Clause 7” put in by
the NDP government in 1991, which
tied the Youbou mill to nearby TFL
46, was taken out in 1996.

Nobody seems to know for sure
who let the clause out.

Local 1-80 has asked, to no avail,
for the government to seek an injunc-
tion stopping TimberWest from tear-
ing the mill down but the govern-
ment doesn’t want to do so because
the mill is on private property.

The Cowichan Lake Community
Forest Cooperative has sought a
legal opinion which has indicated
that the TFL 46 licensing agree-
ment, as is, requires TimberWest to
operate a manufacturing facility in
the area.

Frustrations and tensions are
growing high.

On April 17 about 60 workers
gathered during the day near the
mill when the company brought in
contract equipment, a heavy crane,
to begin work on the dismantling.

Some shouting occurred between
a contractor and the workers.

The union is anxiously awaiting
the results of lawyer Dan Gelb’s
investigation. He was appointed as
a result of direct pressure from the
crew and the I.W.A..

On January 29 the workers held
a rally of between 130-150 people at
the legislature in Victoria, demand-
ing to know what happened to the
protection they had under the 1991
Clause 7.

_In 1991 when Fletcher Challenge
divided its TFL 46 into TFL 46 and
‘TEL 54 (it sold the latter to Interna-
tional Forest Products), a “Clause
7” was put into TFL 46 guarantee-
ing that 352,000 cubic meters from
the license would go to the Youbou
sawmill.

Workers were assured they had
protection and the mill could not
close for a sustained period of time
or cut down on production. Then the
clause disappeared in 1996.

During the rally Local 1-80 presi-
dent Bill Routley said; “There’s
something very wrong here and very
fish and it smells!”

Routley also suggested higher ups
in the Ministry of Forests met with

top TimberWest officials to delete
the clause in 1996.

Workers paraded with signs and
mock coffin saying they found the
clause inside. In other words, it had
been buried.

Eric Kristianson, a spokesperson
for the forests ministry, told the
media that in 1996 the clause was
taken out to allow companies to ship
to other mills.

On January 31 workers went into
the legislature to speak with pre-
mier Ujjal Dosanjh and wound up
speaking with Aboriginal Affairs
Minister Dave Zirnhelt. The minis-
ter told the workers that bureau-
crats took the clause out.

Questioned by reporters, premier
Dosanjh answered: “In terms of how
clause seven disappeared, as
allegedly, it was not supposed to do
— that is the subject of an investi-
gation.”

On April 17, reported the Vancou-
ver Sun, TimberWest’s president
Paul McElligot told analysts that it
predicted a jump in log exports to
the United States this spring.

Taking advantage of the uncer-
tainties over the softwood lumber
dispute between Canada and the
US., TimberWest continues to pump
private wood into U.S. mills while it
plans to dismantle the Youbou mill.

RR SS

6/LUMBERWORKER/April, 2001

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