About 3,000 forestry workers in coastal B.C. walked off the job Monday after contract talks between Western Forest Products Ltd. and the United Steel Workers Union broke down.
Western said about 1,500 of its hourly employees and 1,500 employees working for its timberland contractors and operators are on strike.
In a statement, Don Demens, president and chief executive officer of Western, called the strike “extremely disappointing.”
“After canceling scheduled bargaining sessions and refusing mediation, it’s clear that the USW is intent on inflicting damage to the coastal forest industry,” Demens said, noting the industry already faces significant challenges.
The strike comes at a time when British Columbia forestry companies are curtailing production and closing mills due to poor market conditions,” the company said.
“We’ve got a weak market in the U.S. which is driven by bad weather so slower than usual construction in the U.S. As well, lumber prices are down about 50 per cent of what they were last year,” said Susan Dolinski, vice president of corporate affairs for Western.
“Then, for the coastal industry, it’s actually compounded by softwood lumber duties. We pay a higher proportion of softwood lumber duties than the rest of Canada just based on the fact that our industry is a producer of high-value lumber. So the higher the value of the lumber you produce, the higher the duties you pay.”
Dolinski said the company is also losing market share in Japan because the Japanese government has been heavily subsidizing its lumber industry.
Western has been in negotiations with the USW since April 2019 for a new collective agreement to replace the contract which expired in mid-June.
The union issued 72-hour strike notice on June 28, according to Western.
The company said it applied June 25 to the Labour Relations Board to appoint a mediator to assist in negotiations and has since made multiple requests with the union for mediated talks.
But the union would not agree to meet, the company said.
“The union has canceled scheduled bargaining sessions. They’ve actually canceled bargaining eight and a half out of the 15 days it was scheduled to occur for,” Dolinski said. “That remains our focus — to have a mediator appointed to bring us back to the table to begin bargaining again.”
USW 1-1937 president Brian Butler could not be reached for comment.
Butler told CHEK News the company was seeking major concessions including in pensions, benefit plans and job security.
The union website says that members working for Western Forest Products voted 98.8 per cent in favour of strike action and that unionized workers working for other contractors also voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action.
The union said the company has not seriously addressed the union’s proposals and “continues to keep massive concessions on the bargaining table that threaten our members,” the union’s website says
The union would be willing to resume negotiations after strike action begins, its website says. “We believe an agreement can be reached quickly once talks resume,” it says.
