Letters to The Vancouver Sun, Jan. 21, 2020: The negative impact of the WFP-USW Strike
Credit to Author: Carolyn Soltau| Date: Tue, 21 Jan 2020 02:00:18 +0000
Dear Premier Horgan and cabinet ministers,
I’m writing this letter to inform you of the significant negative impact this strike is having on our employees and their respective family’s lives.
We own two small businesses directly involved in the coastal forest industry on Vancouver Island. Our normal business operations employ over 50 full-time staff and hourly workers, many of whom are USW members. Although our USW employees aren’t part of this strike all of our employees are being negatively affected by it.
Some of my laid-off employees are now asking to borrow money from me to help them make ends meet while they try to hold their lives and families together. Asking for this kind of help while trying to survive on EI (with welfare waiting just a few more months away) has become a massively humiliating experience for them. I fear many of our valued employees will be forced to move away from the Island to support their families.
No one expected this strike to last seven months with no end in sight.
In all our 55 years in the coastal forest industry we have never witnessed anything this devastating to our employees, including the 2008 financial crisis. I fear some are now on the verge of financial failure and I’m sure our employees struggles magnify what is already happening up-and-down the Island.
A local loan officer in Duncan recently told me she has over 200 mortgage proposals from strike-related customers to deal with. This is from just one institution in one town. I can’t imagine what the numbers might be for the whole Island.
As small-business owners we have been creating jobs in the forest industry since 1965. This current process is now failing us as well. Our businesses have significant funds invested in the industry in terms of plant, equipment and lands, and all have been idled by the strike generating zero return while we are obligated to continue paying taxes and other payments to maintain the integrity of our businesses.
Like you we have always respected the collective bargaining process, having had an excellent working relationship with the USW-IWA since 1977. However, the collective bargaining process in this dispute is broken. I respect what the union is trying to accomplish for its workers and what the company is trying to achieve in order to maintain its competitiveness.
But for some reason they can’t seem to find a compromise. And there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight.
What will the social cost be to maintain the status quo? Watching the suffering continue until the summer or beyond while we all wait for both sides to eventually make the necessary compromises will simply add tremendous pain to those already suffering.
As leaders of our province I’m asking you to please start looking at this dispute as a social crisis rather than simply another non-essential labour dispute. Please get involved so the needless suffering of thousands of British Columbians can stop and we can all go back to the jobs we are proud of.
Guy Carpentier, owner
C&C Lath Mill Ltd. Duke Point Transload Ltd.
According to the Queen, Harry and Meghan have “made clear that they do not want to be reliant on public funds in their new lives.”
According to the London Evening Standard, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has assured the Queen that during the period of transition as they relocate to Canada, whilst here, the couple’s security needs would be taken care of “even if they have the protection of British security guards.”
Please tell me why I and my fellow taxpayers should be footing any part of this bill?
There are people living in abject poverty in this country. I would suggest our tax dollars be used to give those in need a “leg-up,” rather than enable an already incredibly wealthy and privileged couple to achieve what they call “financial independence.”
Diane Brown, Vancouver