OR ESE AND ENVIRONMENT

IWA sawmill vanishes in B.C. forest fire

National and local unions donating to benevolent fund for affected workers

THE SUMMER FROM HELL it has
been for communities in the B.C.
Interior. Through July and mid-
August over 90,000 hectares of
forests, over half of which are in the
McClure, Barriere and Louis Creek
area of the North Thompson district
and the Chilko Lake area of the
Chilcotin Plateau, went up in fire.
The most serious hit for IWA
members was on the August long
weekend when the communities of
Louis Creek and Barriere were swept
by wild firestorms, set accidently.
One hundred and eighty workers
with the Tolko Louis Creek division
lost their jobs when the sawmill and
planer was incinerated, leaving little
more than a chip bin and a couple of
forklifts. The heat was so great that
the I-beams in the mill melted as did
the planer and office. Over two dozen

homes around the mill were
destroyed, some belonging to IWA
Local 1-417 members. The future of
the employees is uncertain, says local
union president Joe Davies. The local
is pushing the company to put on
extra shifts at other Tolko operations.
Over 13 kilometeres of hydro lines
were burnt, knocking out power to the
company’s plywood mill and the
Compwood value-added plant, also in
Heffley Creek. As of press time the
company was assessing its damage
and whether or where it would rebuild
the mill. Local union first vice and
business agent Warren Oja, says the
union crew is hoping that the mill will
be rebuilt on the same site. It was an
efficient, profitable operation that suf-
fered no down time. About 70 per
cent of the public forest license’s wood
was going to Louis Creek and the

PHOTO COURTESY TOLKO INDUSTRIES

= The Tolko Industries Louis Creek mill was destroyed in an early August fire.

other 30 to Heffley Creek. “It’s important
to maintain community stability,” says
Brother Oja. “Many people not only lost
their jobs, they lost everything they had.
This is an unbelievable tragedy.”

The IWA national office has donated
$10,000 to a benevolent fund which will

directly assist the crew. Local unions
across Canada are also collecting dona-
tions. You can too. Write your cheques
to the : Interior Benevolent Fund c/o:
Warren Oja - IWA Local 1-417
181 Vernon Avenue
Kamloops, BC. V2B 1L7

FILE PHOTO BY NORMAN GARCIA

= A TimberWest hydraulic loader sorts high-grade logs for tagging into bundles for export out of Canada.

Greasing the log export skids

Feds have already said they might roll over on private lands

IT LOOKS LIKE A “CRAZY” policy
of freely permitting the export of logs
from private lands in B.C. is still on the
agenda of the federal government as it
tries to get some sort of a softwood
lumber agreement with the U.S.

In late March assistant deputy min-
ister for International trade Doug
Waddell announced the federal gov-
emment is prepared to allow forest
companies in B.C. to freely allow log
exports from privately managed forest
lands as part of a softwood deal. There
is no recent indication the feds are pre-
pared to change their mind.

“This kind of policy would be crazy
and careless,” says IWA president
Dave Haggard. “Forest companies led
by TimberWest and Weyerhaeuser

would increasingly by-pass mills in

B.C. and leave communities in more of

a mess.”
In the spring both companies told
the Vancouver Sun that they would not

increase _ the
level of exports.

“We in the
IWA do not
believe that for
one second,”
says Brother
Haggard. “They
would turn

2
around tomor-

ee row and sell

every stick of their private wood to the
highest bidders — B.C. communities
be damned!”

Port Alberni Local 1-85 president
Monty Mearns scoffs at Weyco’s sug-
gestion that coastal mills must be
more flexible and competitive to suc-
cessfully compete for private logs.

“This industry hasn’t invested in its
sawmill in any meaninful amount
since the late 70s and early 80s,” he
says. “If the feds open up private lands
that will encourage companies to

export even more.”

Mearns notes that Weyco has taken
second growth fir all from Great
Central Lake area in the Alberni
Valley, all the way to Kamloops for pro-
cessing and that the company contin-
ues to export from the Ash Valley and
Cameron as TimberWest does from
the Beaufort Range.

Duncan Local 1-80 president Bill
Routley questions why the feds would
ever allow private log exports to
increase when Coast mills can’t get
enough wood and are built to overca-
pacity. “More and more of our jobs
would be moved with those logs to the
United States and overseas.” He
points out that TimberWest, which
closed its Youbou sawmill in the win-
ter of 2001, is a leading proponent of
log exports. “They (TimberWest) and
Weyerhaeuser have been lobbying for
the right to export private logs and
TimberWest even sued for the right.”

Hinton loggers skill train to
operate and protect ecology

IWA Local 1-207 members, who are
preparing to work on feller bunchers
and log processors at the Weldwood
Hinton operation have been partici-
pating in a skills upgrading program
which has a heavy component of
environmental awareness built into it,
in addition to safe operating proce-
dures. Local union president Mike
Pisak says, as much of the existing 65
man union crew is heading into
retirement years, it’s an opportune
time to take advantage of a program
which has been developed in cooper-
ation with the Northern Lights College
in Slave Lake. The operator training
courses, which began in late June,
break into three components: basic
training (intro classroom instruction,
simulator training, equipment famil-
iarity and hands-on equipment prac-
tice), supplemental training (demon-

PHOTO COURTESY WELDWOOD HINTON
= Simulated training module.

time for forestry training, and evala-
tions) and portion on gaining spare
operator status. In addition to learn-
ing to safety and efficiently run the
equipment, learner competencies
acquired include understanding the
procedures in the Forest Resource
Action Plan, understanding
Weldwood's Sustainable Forest
Management Policy, the careful oper-
ation of machinery to minimize env-
jiormental impact, cut block manage-
ment and completion, reading and
navigation of maps and photos, iden-
tification of tree species, proper sort-
ing of logs and a full understanding
of the stump to truck processes.

AUGUST 2003 THE ALLIED WORKER | 15

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