Companies, contractors and communities caught in middle of forestry strike
Credit to Author: Rob Shaw| Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2019 01:12:40 +0000
VICTORIA — A five-month strike at Western Forest Products (WFP) has left companies, contractors and communities on North Vancouver Island caught in the middle of an economic crisis.
“People are hungry, people are losing things,” said Tamara Meggitt, who co-runs a Loonies for Loggers group that is soliciting donations, food and Christmas hampers for those affected by the strike. “Just this Saturday I was on the phone with a gentleman, 65-years-old, whose wife has cancer, and he just lost his house.
“It’s awful when you talk to somebody like that. We’ve been on the phone at 1 a.m. to a wife whose husband is suicidal and they don’t know what to do or how to help them. It’s hard because you want to wrap these people in your arms, and you don’t want to cry.
“But we’ve had grown men cry on our shoulders because they are so proud, and to have them essentially come to a food bank on wheels and accept donations is so hard for them to do.”
The five-month strike at six Western Forests Product manufacturing plants and timberlands locations involves roughly 3,000 members of United Steelworkers Local 1-1937.
But the ripple effect in small Island communities that depend on forestry for their economic livelihood has been much larger, as contractors, suppliers, businesses and municipalities outside of the two deadlocked parties suffer as well.
Meggitt said she estimates 10,000-15,000 people are directly impacted by the strike. Even if there is a deal soon, those people will need help for at least another month to get back on their feet.
Government set up a $69-million forestry aid package in September. But only Interior forest workers are eligible for most of the money. North Island MLA Claire Trevena was harshly criticized in a forestry town hall meeting last week for her government’s inaction to help coastal forestry workers during a time of crisis.
“It’s absolutely decimated the forestry side of our business,” said Eric Dutcyvich, president and CEO of the Lemare Group in Port McNeill, which is the largest forestry-services provider on the North Island. “The same can be said for dozens and dozens of dedicated contractors to Western Forests Products.”
Lemare, which conducts phased contracting, speciality road construction and dryland sorting for WFP, employs 200 members of United Steelworkers Local 1-1937. But Dutcyvich said he’s not allowed to negotiate with them directly. Instead, he’s been forced to watch while the cost to his company has been $47 million in lost wages, goods and services, taxation and stumpage.
Contractors, who in some cases work both with WFP and the union, are particularly vulnerable as they struggle to make payments on their heavy equipment and businesses without any voice at the bargaining tale.
“The frustration in addition to having been parked on the sidelines for coming up on six months now, we never really had an opportunity to collectively bargain with our employees,” said Dutcyvich. “The union took the position that we were not going to be bargaining the agreement, that we were going to be parked on the sides while they work out something with Western Forest Products.
“So as far as we’re concerned and our employee are concerned we were the ones with skin in the game, the ones with millions in invested capital, trying to make payments, and this whole process is being run by people who are paid a salary regardless of how effective they are in getting a deal done, and that’s on both sides.”
Mediator Vince Ready told Postmedia News that the union and the company will be back to the negotiating table Thursday “to make a last-ditch attempt to resolve this thing.” Both sides disagree over the use of alternate shift schedules, along with a drug- and alcohol-testing program.
Government should have intervened sooner in a dysfunctional process that Dutcyvich said has been filled with misinformation and collateral damage to workers and communities.
Opposition Liberal critic John Rustad, a former forestry minister, said he’s visited the North Island and heard some of the stories directly.
“I talked to a car dealer in the previous week or two, he had to repossess 10 vehicles and he said you get all the stories, it so tragic to hear and see what’s happening. One guy came in and begged and pleaded and wanted to keep his vehicle through Christmas, so they ended up doing a deal with the guy, and he gave then a load of firewood so he could keep his vehicle for Christmas.”
Rustad said he also supports collective bargaining, but after this long it’s the government’s responsibility to intervene with some sort of cooling-off period or industrial inquiry to lower the temperature and get a deal.
“With the pain being inflicted upon the coast, government needs to take that into consideration,” he said. “It’s not taking the union’s side or company’s side, it’s about taking into account the people.”
Rustad said he believes the NDP was slow to act because the United Steelworkers — the NDP’s largest donor in the 2017 election campaign — asked the government to stay out of the dispute.
“This government has made it very clear, and I’ve heard this on numerous occasions, that they’ve got the union’s back and they aren’t going to do anything unless the union wants them do. Who is left advocating for the people caught in this by no fault of their own?”
In the 2,200-person town of Port McNeill, which relies almost entirely on the forestry sector, Mayor Gaby Wickstrom said community groups, churches and families are organizing group dinners and other support services.
“You go into the shops and they are empty,” she said. “It’s Christmas and normally it’s jovial and full. People in the shops are getting laid off. You look at the striking workers, and I feel for them, but you also think of the amount of wages they’ve lost some people don’t even see in a year. There are coffee-service people and service-industry people laid off that don’t even make minimum wage. Those are the people I really feel sorry for. Those are the people that my heart breaks for.”
Premier John Horgan has characterized the dispute as a private-sector matter. But after five months, with communities in crisis, Wickstrom said government can no longer sit on the sidelines.
“You can’t tell me they don’t need help and you have to let the process run its course,” she said. “How long? We are resilient and we are going to pick up the pieces, but the longer this drags on the longer it will take to pick up those pieces.
“It will take us a hell of a long time to get back.”