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[> New Westminster Lumber
closure announced On November
14, Western Forest Products
announced the permanent closure of
its New Westminster
Lumber Division
sawmill, which
would throw nearly
300 Local 1-3567
members onto

BrianHarder unemployment roles.
The 92 year old mill, which cuts both
cedar and white woods, has been
nothing but a money-maker for
Western and its predecessor owners,
Weyerhaeuser and MacMillan

Bloedel. In previous months it made
between $1.6- $1.8 million per month
in profits. Local union president
Brian Harder said the move was com-
pletely unexpected and says that
Western's claim that there are not
enough logs to run the mill is incor-
rect. The company harvests millions
of cubic meters meters more than it
processes. “Western says it wants to
be a lumber manufacturer but its
actions show it wants to be a log
exporter,” says Harder, who adds that
the local will soon be lobbying provin-
cial politicians to keep the mill open
and stop the export of logs. [>>
Layoffs on WFP graveyards In
mid-October, just after the Harper-
Bush softwood deal went into effect,
USW Local 1-80 reported that
Western Forest Products dropped
the graveyard shift and 22 members
at its Cowichan Bay mill. Just over a
week later the company’s Duke Point
division cut it’s graveyard shift, with
40 members laid off. Local union
officer Brian Butler says the compa-
ny could curtail more planer mill

= Local 1-423 members at the Tolko plywood plant are having 130 jobs
eliminated in Kelowna. Norman Garcia

Tolko crew hit by plywood closure

KELOWNA-BASED LOCAL 1-423 was hit hard with an October 13 announce-
ment that Tolko Industries plans to permanently close the majority of its ply-
wood plant no later than January, 5 2007. Such a closure, says local union
president Ben Landis, will mean the loss of some 130 bargaining unit jobs.
Tolko says it will operate a single lathe and dryer, which will mean only 30 jobs.

That veneer will go to Armstrong. The local union

‘-Yoy ne Kcjehme has been in negotiations with the company over sev-

1-423 erance for the workers and application of seniority

KELOWNA BC

rights. Tolko lays part of the blame of the closure at

declining log quality and market conditions in North America. It claims that
peeler logs infested by the mountain pine beetle are affecting log quality. On
November 28 the crew conducted a study session over the issue of severance
__ pay. Local officer Dave Welder notes that the company told the workers they
would be offered severance pay but that the company has dragged its feet.

shifts if the layoffs
of graveyard shifts
persist. Local union
president Bill
Routley notes that
the Harper-Bush
agreement caused
shippers to send a “wall of wood”
over the line prior to October 12,
when the higher export tax kicked in,
putting an excess of lumber on the
market, driving prices downwards.

a)

Bil Routley

[> Coulson mill taking down
time Two days before Harper-Bush
the Coulson Millworks plant in Port
Alberni announced a mill closure a
week later, reported Local 1-85 first
vice president Dave Steinhauer. At
the time of the announcement the
company only had orders for 8 days
of work in November. The mill gets
its cedar supply from the nearby
WFP Somass Cedar operation.
Eighteen jobs were affected. “>

6 T 2006 THE ALLIED WORKER