Weyerhaeuser workers
protest permanent
plant closures

The message that workers from
the Weyerhaeuser Canadian White
Pine and K-3 particleboard plants
in Vancouver, took to a joint I.W.A.
Canada - International Association
of Machinists conference on dealing
with Weyerhaeuser was that you
can’t trust the company for just
treatment.

You can buy into Weyerhaeuser
co-management systems, you can
work your tail off and you can bend
over backwards to make the
company’s operations efficient and
profitable and you can be rewarded
with closure and severance pay.

On November 14, Federal Way,
the giant Washington-based
corporation announced the upcoming
closure of the two Local 2171
operations. K-3 is going down on
January 11 of next year and CWP is
set to permanently close on March 7.

Over 500 well-paying union jobs
will be lost.

CWP plant chairman Jewan
Bassra told the Lumberworker that
the “way we have been treated and
the effort that we put into making
this division profitable — is not
just.”

Over the past four years the cedar
mill has posted over $47 million in
profits. This year profits were
headed towards $7 million despite
large periods of downtime.

“If all the other Weyerhaeuser
employees think that the company
cares about their employees, they
better think about it twice,” said
Brother Bassra.

“The way I see it, they don’t,” he
added. “How can you justify making
a huge amount of money in one
division and turn around without
any worker input or consultation
with the I.W.A. (and) just turn
around and close mills?”

For local union president Darrel
Wong there’s another agenda behind
Weyerhaeuser’s decision to close the
CWP.

“I think they’ve made a corporate
decision to continue to export the
largest volume of timber of any of
the forest companies on the coast of

B.C.,” he said. “It’s easier to export
logs if you don’t have as many mills.”
Weyerhaeuser’s official announce-
ment did not mention the log export
issue and only referred to adjust log
supply to milling capacity. It has
two other cedar mills he New
Westminster Lumber Division and
Somass Cedar in Port Alberni.

The K-3 mill sits adjacent to CWP.
Both neighbour condominium
developments on the north arm of
the Fraser River.

Local union second vice-president
Harry Bains said Weyco is “trying
to cash in on real estate property
value.”

“Both crews at both operations
worked very hard and cooperated
every which-way they could,” he
said. “At the end of the day they are
being thrown onto the street
regardless of how they produced.”

K-3 plant chairman Jamie
Mckenzie said that workers at the
plants will not receive the amount
of public support that workers in a
small community would receive. He
agreed the high value of the land
that the plants sits on is likely a
strong contributing factor.

The company says it will operate
an adjacent distribution facility for
six to 14 months before it moves.

For Brother Mckenzie the message
to I.W.A. and IAM workers is clear.

“I’m gonna tell them, you know,
we cooperated for four years (with
MacMillan Bloedel and then Weyco),
we worked with management to
make things better,” he said. “We
sacrificed in order to make the mill
survive. And at the end of the day,
what do we get? I got a binder on
how to do a successful employment
transition!”

“We did everything that was asked
and White Pine, in particular, was
very profitable— each division is
supposed to make its 19 per cent
return on net assets. They expect
that whether it’s tough times or
good times,” he added.

Of the 500 workers in the two
mills, over 200 are over age 50.
Mckenzie said Weyerhaeuser should

¢ Local 2171 members expressed their anger at fulfilling the company’s

demands and being shut down next year.

treat the long-term employees with
respect.

Brother Bains said workers at
CWP feel they have been used by
the company. The crew joined the
company in its campaign to push
for an special exemption for cedar
from the softwood lumber war with
the U.S.

“Every challenge they
(management) threw at them — the
softwood lumber tariff issues, trying
to get the cedar exemption — they
did everything from going to

Ay

2 YOU WIL HAVE JOBS

ee

¢ I.W.A. members, lead by national president Dave Haggard (1.),j
November’s B.C. Federation of Labour convention (see story page thirty-one).

ca

joined a march against job losses during

shores malls to get petitions
signed to phoning MP’s and MLA’s,”
said Bains. “At the end of the day,
everything was for naught — they
lost their jobs.”

Bains said the company is playing
hardball over severance. It only
intends to > pay the bare minimum
under the Coast Master Agreement
and offer a measly retraining
allowance.

Brother Wong, who earlier this
year went to met Weyco vice-

resident Craig Neesor accompanied

y local union first vice-president
Gary Kobayashi, said the company
was asked to ensure that workers
at CWP and K-83 were protected. In
the event that something was to
happen they asked for a heads-up.

“We wanted as much advance
notice as possible to ensure they
(the workers) get taken care of in
all areas,” he said.

Wong received a call from Mr.
Neesor only on the morning of the
press release announcing closure.

Some Weyerhaeuser employees
heard the news on the radio or were
notified by family members.

“I was shocked that a company
that says that they care about their
employees would do this,” said
Brother Bassra.

Workers were repeatedly told that
any profitable division that is cost-
efficient would be safe and, by
exceeding production targets, Bassra
said “we thought we were safe.” _

A gain sharing program paid
healthy bonuses to workers over the
past three to four years. 3

The message Wong would deliver
in Portland is clear.

“There’s no way on God’s green
earth we’re going to negotiate
anything cooperatively with
Weyerhaeuser unless there are
guarantees of employment and
guarantees that every member is
going to be taken of in the event

that there’s a closure,” he said. _

“Anything less is unacceptable.”

6/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 2001