A8 - The Terrace Standard, Wednasday, April 30, 2003

Veniez, Wong have ‘good meeting’

Sawmill deal

still elusive

By JEFF NAGEL
DAN VENIEZ met IWA
boss Darrel Wong face-to-
face for their first real
meeting last week.

But there was no im-
mediate sign that a re-
sumption of actual nego-
tiations is on the horizon
over the future of New
Skeena Forest Product's
mothballed Terrace saw-
mill.

The April 22 meeting
happened almost a week
after both men told the
Standard they'd be pre-
pared to meet and see if
there’s any chance at a
deal to restart the mill,

“We apree on many
more issues than we dis-
agree on,” Veniez said
after the session with
Wong. “That’s a good
thing.” ,

“I got a strong sense
that he wants to get his
workers back to work,”
added Veniez, whose hired
negotiator had dealt with
the IWA previously.
“There’s no question about
that. It’s in no one’s inter-

est to see this go on inde-

finitely,”

But Veniez indicated
they haven’t yet found a
way to bridge the gap be-
tween the two sides’ en-
trenched positions.

“If there’s a basis there
to proceed, I'd certainly
like to do that,” he said.
“But it’s in nobody’s inter-
est to raise expectations or

’ prolong conversations that
will lead to another stale-
mate.”

Wong also cautioned
against speculation.

“I don’t think people
should build too much inta
that conversation,” Wong
said, who declined to dis-
cuss details of what was
said. “I don’t want to build
any false expectations for
anyone.”

He called it a good
meeting and said the two
were to meet again this
week.

“All we're trying to.do

is openiup some dialogue .

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so we can review whether
there is any opportunity to
sort through our differ-
ences.”

_ Talks broke down in
early December, when the
two sides were very close
to a six-year deal that
would have met New
Skeena’s “Fresh Start”
principles,

Among them, the saw-
mill workers would take a
20 per cent pay cut in ex-

change for a profit-sharing

package and increased
work flexibility, and rea-
sonable ability, for the
company to contract out.

The company offer
called for no pay increases
in the first two years, but
two per cent raises each
year thereafter.

Veniez says any deal
will reinstate the seniority
rights of all workers. That
effectively would restore
lost recall rights that dis-
appeared in recent weeks
-a major concern of the
union,

Negotiations collapsed
over the number of weeks
of vacation pay — the WA
wants seven while New
Skeena is offering five.

Asked why they can't
split at six weeks, Veniez
said he can’t offer more
than the five vacation
weeks pulp mill workers in
Prince Rupert got when
they signed a similar deal
last summer.

"I’m not going to slap
them in the face," Veniez

. Says of the PPWC.

New Skeena’s list of
concessions is also chal-
lenging for JWA negotia-
tors, who believe other for-
est companies will, seize
on any deal here as a pre-
cedent that they'll push to
replicate in coast-wide
talks now getting under-

way.

And the union is ‘also
reluctant to sign a deal
that would end the flow of
strike pay to members here
without any firm date to
restart the sawmill,

Veniez. said he also told
Wong his preferred time-
table for restarting the Ter-
race mill.

“Ideally I'd like to fire
up the sawmill in July,” he
said. “By September is

when we would like to run’

Che ai gels

on three shifts.”

But he concedes saw-
mill workers may not be-
lieve in the new owners’
ability to relaunch the
company until the pulp
mill is running.

“We're on track for

June in terms of getting

[the pulp mill] going,” Ve-
niez said.

Veniez also said he
now has contracts in place
with companies he would
not identify to provide the
pulp mill a chip supply
and to transport the chips.

“Fibring up is not going
to be a. challenge,” he
said, “The system is awash
in chips.”

“I'm preparing to run
without Terrace if I have
to,” he added.

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