Vaughn Palmer: Hurting could soon be over in WFP dispute, but why the lengthy delay?
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2019 03:49:11 +0000
VICTORIA — Cabinet minister Claire Trevena assured an angry crowd in her riding that she would bring their calls for intervention in the troubled forest sector to this week’s meeting of the NDP cabinet.
“I’m very aware that people are angry,” the North Island NDP MLA assured last week’s closed-door session with contractors, employers and others in the forest industry.
“One of the things that you are seeing is your government representative here, listening, to take your concerns directly from these rooms to (Harry) Bains, the minister of labour or (Doug) Donaldson, the minister of forests.”
But events overtook Trevena before she could buttonhole her colleagues at the cabinet meeting set for Wednesday.
A 30-minute video of the showdown in her riding was posted on YouTube. That sparked media coverage of NDP’s continued neglect of the forest sector and Trevena’s promise to air those concerns at the cabinet table.
One thing that stood out in the video were calls for the government to intervene in the prolonged strike at Western Forest Products, now in its sixth month and the longest in the history of the forest industry on the West Coast.
But those calls were rejected out of hand on Monday of this week by both Premier John Horgan and Labour Minister Bains.
“Of course there’s anger when you’ve had a five-month strike in the coastal forest sector, this is unprecedented,” Horgan told reporters when the question came up at a media event in Surrey.
“Growing up on Vancouver Island in forest-dependent communities, coming from working in forestry many, many years ago, I understand the challenges that people and families face particularly at this time of year.”
About 3,000 forestry workers are on strike in coastal British Columbia after negotiations between Western Forest Products Inc. and the United Steelworkers failed to produce a new contract.
Yes, precisely. Which is why it is so surprising that the working person’s premier, proud of having earned his own hard hat, had allowed 3,000 workers to remain on strike for a record period of time.
Why, too, has his government offered those workers nothing while crafting a $69 million bailout for displaced forest workers in the B.C. Interior?
But far from Horgan’s sympathetic comment being a prelude to taking action, he then repeated a variation on his belief in collective bargaining.
“This is a private sector dispute between parties,” the premier continued. “They are at the table. The best mediator in the province, Vince Ready, is there working.”
Chiming agreement was Bains, himself a former officer in the IWA, predecessor of the Steelworkers union now on strike against Western Forest Products.
“Our government supports the collective bargaining process and I firmly believe that collective agreements are best when negotiated at the bargaining table,” said the statement from Bains.
Based on those comments alone, Trevena would be wasting her breath in pitching the idea of government intervention, never mind how many times those calls from her constituents were ringing in her ears.
But within the premier’s comments was a hint that movement was afoot, perhaps later this week.
Ready, the veteran mediator who had been engaged earlier in the dispute, was “working” on something. Horgan was “hopeful there will be a resolution in the next day or so.”
Then on Tuesday came word from Ready himself, via a phone call to Rob Shaw of The Vancouver Sun:
“We have emailed the parties and invited them back to the table on Thursday to make a last-ditch attempt to resolve this thing. And we’ve placed a media blackout on the talks.”
Fingers crossed all around.
North Island MLA Claire Trevena was told by frustrated forestry workers in her home riding that she and her NDP government need to do more than listen to help the many families in financial crisis.
Still, that leaves the question of why the New Democrats let the dispute drag on for months.
One reason for hesitation could be the wage gap between the two per cent offered by the company and the three per cent sought by the union.
The former is in line with the NDP government’s mandate for contract settlements with its own unionized workers. The latter, if it became the basis for a settlement imposed through provincial intervention, would exceed the guideline for the government workforce.
There’s also the fact that the company is seeking government intervention and the union opposes it.
Don Demens, CEO of Western Forest Products: “We’ve been working at this a long time, and I would say to the premier that it’s time for resolution. People are hurting.”
Brian Butler, Steelworkers’ local president of Steelworkers local 1-1937: “The government should not be intervening in this dispute. This is not an essential service, it is collective bargaining.”
The union is one of the most powerful and well connected in the province. It helped bankroll the New Democrats to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in the last election.
That connection alone might be enough to persuade a friendly government to butt out.
Another possibility is that this is all part of the NDP’s benign neglect of the industry in the face of declining markets, economic change, shortage of fibre and the need for restructuring and a shift to value added production on the coast as well as in the Interior.
The government’s reluctance to ride to the rescue of Western Forest Products may be a prelude to darker designs on company timber supply.
There’d be no need for further speculation if the dispute is settled soon under Ready’s auspices, as the premier hopes.
But if mediation fails and the dispute continues, then the onus will be back on the New Democrats to intervene or justify their decision to let the hurting continue.
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