Dennis Byers

and good-humoured individual who
helped us get through some tough
times. Even after he retired, sa
would visit with us to share
experience and knowledge.” a
Local 500 financial-secretary Irvin
Baetz remembers Dennis as some-
One who was always there to help
out. “Dennis always knew what side
he was on,” says Baetz

Region 2 book keeper remembered

In July, IWA members from a

bygone era were saddened to be

informed that Regina Kilinski, for-

mer bookkeeper for Eastern Canada
Regi

Regina
Kilinski president Harv
Landon Ladd. She served the union

Offic em
femembers Regina as a mentor and

Unions,” says Diane. “She ran a
tight ship and that was before the
days of automated book keeping.”

> Western to buy-out Cascadia
In November, Western Forest
Products (WFP), itself under mount-
ing debt loads, announced it intends
to expand the consolidation of the
coastal BC forest industry by pur-
chasing sawmills and Crown land
assets of Cascadia Forest Products.
Cascadia (former Weyerhauser
Coastal operations) has four
sawmills and remanners on
Vancouver Island and the Lower
Mainland, certi-
fied to USW
Locals 1-85, 1-80

Industries) and
ex-Weyco oper-
ations and ass-

ests, WFP will have ro sawmills, five
remanners and 1.55 billion board feet
of lumber manufacturing capacity. It
also includes unionized coastal log-

Local 1-80 member at
WFP in Cowichan Bay

ging operations and a pulp mill. The

deal, expected by financial experts to

go through in early 2006, will no

doubt result in WFP rationalizing

production as closing union mills.
“We

lee eee fee afl cloeared. aa isa
policy changes
legislated by the BC Liberals,” says
Steve Hunt, Director of USW
District 3. “It’s too early to tell where
or when our members will be forced
to take the hit.” > A Warm Thanks
from Greg NicDowell’s Family
The family of deceased Local 1-207

member Greg McDowell, killed
while working at the Tolko sawmill
in High Level (see story page 16)
sends its heart felt thanks to local
union members in Alberta who gen-
erously donated to a trust fund set
up to assist his surviving children: 8
year-old son Gabreal and 3 year-old
daughter Mya. Over $10,000 was
raised by workers and is being held
for them in trust. [> Grassroots
Safety cue In late Cert a col-

bers, alin themselves the Vancouver
Island Loggers’ Sey uyper oo

eee ap

number fatalities in th BC forest
industry. The group, which started out
on southern Vancouver Island as the
Cowichan Woodlands Safety Support
Group, is led by the wives of forest
workers. On Geeber 28, a group of
neath 508 tt the Mescachie

Bald tn Viol

orory for the al 34 ones who had
been killed day. Participants
many of whom were dressed in
black, then walked from the field to
the nearby Munn Lumber’s
Cowichan Woodlands one Sigup
leaden jon Tannidi

Q4

a increasing use
oF alternate shifts and extended days,
which cause sleep deprivation. The
implication on notice safety is clear,
t ct on workers’ fam.
ilies, Ms. reid said in an
interview with The Allied Worker.
Local 1-80 President Bill Routley, who

1. HF 7

aa qiaill

+h, 11: ah

increasingly dangerous workplaces are
being felt far and wide in BC.

THE ALLIED WORKER DECEMBER 2005 T 27