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PORT ALBERNI — The four metre hemlock logs move up the conveyor chains into the 75-decibel roar of the mill and are flipped like pencils onto the waiting dolly. Powerful pincers close on the wood and several tons of steel glide swift- ly, effortlessly past the huge band- saw blade. An electronic touch from the operator above and the log is turned, held, and again swept past the relentless blade.

The rough lumber slips down to the conveyors below where it will move to one of several stations de- pending on how much lumber can be recovered. Usable pieces fall to the bottom level and a waiting chip- per. Across the vast expanse of the mill, there is hardly a human fig- ure; production is controlled at strategically placed consoles where a few operators augment the cent- ral computer program. The lumber is cut, trimmed and finally sorted into huge bins — automatically.

The mill is MacMillan-Bloedel’s Alberni Pacific Division (APD) sawmill — and it’s one of the most modern anywhere in the world.

It was completed in 1981, using state-of-the-art technology devel- oped in the wood industry in Ore- gon and Washington state. It is so modern in fact, that the company which developed the technology — Kookums — has forbidden those going through the mills to take any photographs.

It is so modern that M-B has ex-

panded its production capacity en- |

ormously over the mill it replaced — to 405,000 board feet per shift. Approximately 2.1 logs per minute

are processed into lumber at cur-.

rent production levels and the equipment is capable of increasing that figure to 3.5 logs per minute.

According to a report prepared by Pemberton Securities, because of the reduced labor costs and the more efficient utilization of saw- logs, the profitability of the APD mill increased by 280 percent over the mill which it replaced.

But the bottom line for wood- workers in Alberni was that close to 100 jobs were lost when M-B com- pleted the $56 million mill last year.

Even more jobs have been elim- inated over at the Alberni Plywood Division where, in 1980, M-B com- pleted a $26 million modernization program. For plywood workers, the price was 245 jobs lost over a two-year period.

“Over the last 20 years, I’ve seen the work force at this mill reduced by 75 percent,”’ recalls George Mc- Knight, a 40-year veteran of the Al- ply mill and currently a lathe oper- ator on the mill’s new “‘continuous cut’’ veneer line.

The automation has come re- lentlessly: new automatic lathes were introduced to “‘peel’’ the ve- neer off the logs, reducing the num- ber of workers required from four to one; the new continuous cut sys- tem increased production greatly and eliminated more jobs; and, during the recent modernization

program, a “‘Georgia-Pacific layup line’? — an automatic system for stacking and gluing the veneer into plywood — was introduced, reduc- ing the work force for that opera- tion from 32 to eight.

In the current recessionary crisis, the statistics detailing the jobs lost to automation have had an omi- nous ring to them. And they’ve ad- ded yet another fear to woodwork- ers’ growing uncertainty about the future.

MacMillan-Bloedel’s other saw- mill at Port Alberni, the Somass mill, is the hardest hit by unem- ployment, with more than 500

Top: Part of the Alply mill's Georgia-Pacific layup line which reduced jobs by 75 percent. Bottom: Oper-

SPECIAL REPORT

McKNIGHT (above), JONNASE decline.

from the work force of 1,100 on in- definite layoff.

But Somass, which is several decades old, is slated for moderni- zation, with plans set to proceed when market conditions improve. In fact, Dale Tuckey, M-B vice- president in building materials re- cently stated that the company’s long-range plan includes moderni- zation at Somass — with a net loss of approximately 100 jobs.

But, IWA member Don Lloyd notes, the:concern is growing that the loss of 100 jobs will be in addi- tion to those already laid off. ‘‘They’ve already got rid of half the workers at Somass now,” he says. “And we think what he (Tuckey) means is that another 100 jobs will be lost.”’

M-B has already rationalized much of its production throughout the province and many are now be- coming convinced that M-B is us- ing the current crisis to lay off many of the workers who simply won’t be needed when the com- pany carries out its future moderni- zation and rationalization pro- grams.

One senior vice-president for M-B summed up the consequences of M-B automation in a startling, but candid, admission on Alberni radio some months ago: ‘‘ You may work here,’’ he told the station’s listeners, ‘“‘but your children prob- ably won’t.”

Inevitably, those in Alberni view the advent of automation with am- bivalence. On the one hand, it is ne- cessary to keep the plants competi- tive. But on the other, it has steadily reduced the work force in Alberni — and unless new markets and new products are developed, that will continue.

“‘Sure, you have to have mod- ernization to keep up,’’ one union- ist comments, ‘‘but like the CLC and the B.C. Fed have said, the workers shouldn’t have to pay the

i 4 oe ‘ sce re a - f ey.

ator monitors automatic movement of logs into the plywood mill's three lathes. PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MARCH 12, 1982—Page 6

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(left). .

. watching the work forcé

price of technological change with their jobs.”’

Hugo Jonassen, the IWA plant chairman at the APD mill, agrees that automation is inevitable and adds: ‘‘MacMillan-Bloedel has” been taking money out of this valley for years — it’s about timé they started putting something back in.”’ |

Unfortunately, what M-B has) been putting back in has done little? for the thousands of woodworkers who have produced its profits of for the province from which it has extracted them.

In fact, the automation program has been aimed, not at creating neW jobs or new industries, but at creat ing highly-rationalized, highly-pro- ductive plants, with productiot specialized in one product area and often for a specialized market.

It is part of M-B’s multinational program based on funnelling itt vestment funds to whichever pat of its corporate empire will ensure the maximum profit.

Because of that rationalization, a whole community — as Albert

!

when the market collapses. APD is an example: because It) produces structural lumber destitt” ed primarily for the Japanese mal" ket, the mill was cut back by one whole shift last year when the Jap” anese market shrank. The shift ha still not been put back to work. Woodworkers at Alberni see the

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has shown graphically — suffers}, it

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‘main solution to the problem in dr

versification and new secondaly processing.

If the: money made through automation were ploughed back

into the creation of new industries

and the development of new manu factured products, it would not 0” ly increase job opportunities bu! would also broaden the industrial base.

had really diversified products, liké gutter stock and wood moulé

“7 remember before when We |

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ings,’’ says Jonassen, referring 0 | industry in the Alberni valley b& |

fore WW II.

Jonassen sees ‘‘small secondayy | industry,” based on the forest 1 |

dustry, as a means of creating ne™ jobs in the valley.

“There’s all sorts of things ¥°

could be making,” he says, citin# as examples, laminated beams, sonite and even furniture. (th Swedish firm IKEA has expanded rapidly in B.C., selling furnl products made, ironically, from pine and fir.)

He also points to the possibiliti® |

e}

of a chemical industry, using Va" |

ous byproducts of wood pr

ing. ‘‘I remember as far back 4

1960 there was talk of a che’ plant being started in the valley: But it never happened.”

And it never will happen so 10f8 |

as MacMillan Bloedel is allowed t0 continue extracting the forest '

source for maximum profit ~ |

without concern for those wh? jobs are eliminated.