FILE PHOTOS BY NORMAN GARCIA.

= Slocan Forest Products, which has ten saw mills in B.C. is about to disappear as a company after it merges into Canfor Corp. Closures are expected to hit .

What about just a few

The Liberals say they only want a few large forest
companies running the show and a bunch of little ones — that, says

Premier Gordon Campbell, is how the province will fill market demand

BY NORMAN GARCIA

LOCAL UNIONS in British Columbia are would arecst sawmill tones Sa

mill designed to pump out some 600 million

under much stress and strain these days. Liberal board feet of lumber per year. Under Liberal

legislation Canfor and others will be able to

/ “A government forest policy changes are kicking in. shut down any mill they want. Even though it

is harvesting the public’s timber - British

The bonds between tenure and community have been severed, and the  Columbias, including the IWA, have no say.

Forest companies are free to wheel and deal.

government’s 20 per cent clawback is starting to take root. A new so-called They can carve up their licences as they please

and sever workers from their jobs and com-

“market stumpage system” is being invoked. What’s it all about? Will these munities. They can manipulate their cut con-

type of changes help a province satisfy American protectionist demands?

In mid-December of last year, on the Shaw cable news program “The Voice of
B.C.” IWA Canada National president Dave Haggard questioned B.C. premier
Gordon Campbell about the merger between Canfor and Slocan and what the
government would put in place to help workers and communities survive,
instead of having fewer mills and jobs. The premier responded by saying “the
legislation is set up for them to merge” the government would “look at” the deal
and its impact on communites.

Premier Campbell was questioned by program host Vaugh Palmer on his views
of having the B.C. forest industry dominated by the two or three enormous com-
panies. The premier’s answer: “I think what you’re going to end up with is a few
large companies and a lot of smaller companies.” That, said Campbell, would be
how the province meets market demand and secures long-term employment.

So if that is the case - which few companies are going to be running the province
in the future? Well, Canfor Corporation is one for sure. In November of last year
the forest giant announced it will takeover Slocan Forest Products. That will give

one company over a staggering fifty per cent of the province’s U.S. market share.
An even bigger Canfor will do the obvious: it will rationalize IWA operations
where it can for 24/7 production. In February of this year, it officially opened the

trol freely. All with a wink and a nod from the
government.

The full impacts on IWA Canada Locals 1-424,
which has eight Canfor and three Slocan mills; Local 1-417, which has two Slocan
mills; and Local 1-405, which has two Slocan operations, are yet to be known. The
20 per cent clawback will most certainly cut Canfor and Slocan jobs.

“This government has created the conditions for many mill closures, the con-
tracting out of IWA jobs and a consolidation of the industry by only a few big
players,” says IWA National President Dave Haggard. “The domino effect is
starting to happen and IWA locals are going to feel the pain.”

On the Coast, International Forest Products is attempting to cherry pick major
parts of Doman Industries and its affiliates Doman-Western and Western Forest
Prouducts. In late February, CEO Duncan Davies announced that it wanted to
move in on the financially-bankrupt Doman to take over four sawmills and a
value-added plant. The takeover bid, which is set up to outmanoever bondholder
support for the Brascan Financial Corporation, would make Interfor the domi-
nant player on the Coast of British Columbia if it is successful. It wants seven-
ty-five per cent of Doman’s public licenses, which translates into 2.7 million
additional cubic metres of timber a year.

The locals which could be affected by the Doman are Duncan Local 1-80, _
which has about 500 members in four sawmills, a log merchandizer and coastal _

12 ] THE ALLIED WORKER MARCH 2004