q)

a

oa
BS

U.S. LUMBER PRODUCERS have
vowed to ignore a NAFTA panel deci-
sion which says Canada must be repaid
over $5 billion in sofwood
lumber duties.

An extraordinary chal-
lenge committee set up
under NAFTA confirmed
an earlier panel's decision
Norm Rivard that U.S. protectionist

must cease collecting duties and repay
Canadian producers.

“We wholeheartedly agree with the
NAFTA panel decision and say it’s high
time for our American cousins to live by
the letter and spirit of the trade agree-
ments they have signed,” says IWA
Council chairperson Norm Rivard.

“For them to just ignore decisions,
puts the entire trade system into chaos

Steel slams U.S. over ignoring NAFTA lumber decisions

and uncertainty,” he added.

The protectionist Coalition for Fair
Lumber Imports says it will appeal the
constitutionality of the NAFTA itself.

“We say the duties must be returned
to Canada and shared among compa-
nies, workers and communities.
‘Taxpayers have footed the legal costs
and must benefit,” says Rivard.

See feature article on pages 22-23.

Western Forest
Products downs mills

Silvertree to permanently close

IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG after the B.C.
provincial election for a major forest
company to make closure announce-
ments. Empowered by B.C. Liberal
forest policy Western Forest Products
(formerly Doman Industries) perma-
nently closed its Silvertree sawmill in
South Vancouver and
|| indefinately shut
down its Saltair mill
in Ladymith, both on
October 28, 2005.
The total jobs affect-
ed are 276.

Local 1-2171 presi-

DarrelWong dent Darrel Wong,
whose local represents Silvertree work-
ers, notes that the company says it will
pay severance pay to mill workers and
has offered to work with the union to
find jobs at remaining mills in Duke
Point (near Nanaimo) Cowichan Bay
and Ladysmith, where it could add third
shifts. It has another mill in Nanaimo.

“We will be holding this company
accountable,” says Wong. “We've
heard lots of promises by other
employers before, especially when
they first announce closures.”

Wong notes that the Silvertree crew

has been one of the best
ones to rely on over the
years — for volunteer and
any other work the
union needed, including
help during provincial
and federal election campaigns.
Steelworkers Local 1-80 president
Bill Routley, whose local represents
the Vancouver Island mills, says
“we’re concerned about a rush to
judgement in the case of WFP Saltair
Division.” He says the local knows the
company has inventory problems but
that, by having no return date, morale
problems are arising. That could lead
to a shortage of skilled trades in the

Committee identifies

= The Silvertree sawmill site in South Vancouver has
been operating since 1947. Proto NORMAN GARCIA

future. “The crew is skeptical about
WFP's statements that there will be
putting additional shifts on at other
mill next year.”

He adds that new management's active
cooperation has resulted in impressive cost
savings. “At the same time we have raised
our concerns that WFP could try to run
our crew out of seniority and severance

options, creating another Tahsis.”

Steelworkers Local 1-80 president Bill F

put together an industrial