Br:

Adrian Koning.

e Finishing off a hardwood log with an air-driven hand debarker at the Pannill Veneer plant is Local 500 member

Kitchener veneer plant still
profitable with old machinery

The operation is like a blast from
the past - a page of history from
when the I.W.A. first began orga-
nizing in Ontario after the Second
World War.

Today the Pannill Veneer Com-
pany Ltd. plant in Kitchener,

Ontario continues operations with a
mixture of old and new technology,
built on a site near the old down-
town area. The mill, which employs
70 I.W.A. Local 500 members or
more, produces high quality hard-
wood and softwood veneer products
for a number of clients including
furniture makers, panel makers
and individual customers.

“It’s quite an old contraption
really,” says Local 500 president
Bruce Weber. “Our members make
it a productive plant, even with old
technology still in use.”

The I.W.A., which organized the
plant in the mid-1990’s, is currently

in contract talks with the employer,
who is the Kitchener-based Ed Yott.

“We are hoping the bring up the
wages and benefits in the operation
and we hope by doing so, the work-
ers will participate more and more
in the union,” adds Brother Weber.

Since the plant was organized,
the union has made progress in sev-
eral areas and hopes to build on
that early success to achieve a bet-
ter collective agreement.

The collective agreement, which
expired on March 30 of the year is
currently being renegotiated. The
1.W.A. is setting out to get a three
year agreement with improvements
to wages, holidays, overtime provi-
sions, safety boot allowances, etc. It
will also try to negotiate a group
insurance plan for all workers and a
first-time ever pension plan.

“In the early days just after the
I.W.A. organized it, the plant

¢ Pictured here are union sisters Jeanni Vail and Carmen Collins-Shipley.

teetered on the verge of bankruptcy
— it went through considerable
financial difficulties,” says Local
500 business agent Dennis Byers.
“We had to adjust our demands
accordingly and did make headway,
touching a little bit on most stan-

cutting in smaller runs. It buys an
assorted of private wood from both
Canada and the U.S. and applies,
on occasion, to harvest logs on pub-
lic permits.

Plant secretary John Bruell, who
offered a tour of the plant, said that
custom cutting involves slicing the
veneers into smaller, specialized
sizes and grades.

“Because the customer wants a
specialized size a lot of the time, it’s
something that larger companies
aren’t always prepared to do — but
we fill that niche (market),” he said.

For instance red oak cut at. a 1/24
of an inch thickness is a specialty
product. coe

The plant has three old “Capital i
veneer slicers, which cut 12’, 16
lengths and half-round logs. It also
has a more modern Italian-built
veneer slicer producing a face cut.

Logs are fed into the plant from
nine vats which cook the logs in
very hot water. On three shifts, the
mill can process over 200 logs a day,
all of which pass through a mechan-
ical debarker.

Years ago the plant used to “box
cut” the logs, taking off four sides.
Today cants are cut off of only two
‘sides, thereby creating less waste.

The veneers are largely cut on the
“up stroke.” On the half round
machine, thinner grades of veneer
are produced mostly for the furni-
ture industry.

Some grades of veneer then go
through a press, rendering a prod-
ucts which gives furniture produc-
ers a better idea of what the grain
structure of the wood looks like.

The veneers, which pass through
dryers, are piled on pallets and then
sent to clipping lines. Smaller piles
can go through a banding machine

e Veneer offbearer Tanya Dahm, seen here in 1998, is one of 70 workers in
the plant.

dard areas of a collective agreement
to make as much progress as we
could at the time.”

When the Lumberworker toured
the plant in October of 1998, it got a
glimpse of old wooden buildings
with an old boiler manufactured in
1927, shortly before the plant was
constructed.

“This part of the province is where
the I.W.A. began, mainly in the fur-
niture industry in the late 1940’s,”
says Brother Weber. “Not only is
the plant an important employer —
it’s like an historic site. And it’s one
that the workers take a good deal of
pride in operating.”

The manufacturer has not
changed the basic equipment design
over the years, but has made the
plant more automated with some
new equipment.

Some of the plant’s original cast-
ings are in use.

The company purchases mostly
hardwood logs (maple, red and white
oak, walnut, cherry, etc.) for custom

and larger ones are banded by hand.
They are then sent to a warehouse,
shipping area or a viewing area.

Some customers will actually come
to view logs as they start on the line
and view the process until the final
product.

Workers carefully measure bun-
dles, cut them and stack them. Each
time they stack a bundle, the num-
ber of pieces of veneer are checked
to get an exact count of when the
parcels are complete.

When the quantity of veneer is
measured, customers are billed for
the areas cut or number of pieces.

Cut-to-size orders are more expen-
sive as the waste created is greater
than if the log had simply been
sliced, trimmed and clipped.

Most of the scrap wood is cap-
tured by two hogs near the clippers
and is fed to the boiler to produce
steam which heats the vats and two
dryers.

“All of the waste product gets
reprocessed to fuel,” said Bruell.

‘18/LUMBERWORKERY/April, 2001