No new talks in Island forestry strike, but media blackout remains
Credit to Author: Rob Shaw| Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2020 00:10:16 +0000
VICTORIA — A strike at Western Forest Products that’s put more than 3,000 employees out of work has entered its seventh month, with the only change being a “media blackout” in place to protect negotiations that aren’t happening.
No bargaining sessions have been held since the latest talks between Western Forests Products and striking United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 employees broke down on Dec. 17, despite a letter from Minister of Labour Harry Bains to both sides on Dec. 20 that asked they return the table over the holidays.
Instead, 20 days after Bains’ letter, the government said Wednesday all sides should continue to refrain from making public comments about what has become the longest strike in coastal forest history. Roughly 3,000 employees are affected, as well as thousands of additional contractors, forestry-related companies and community businesses.
“The mediators continue to work with both the company and the union and have asked that parties not comment while this work is ongoing,” Bains said in a statement Wednesday. “We are hopeful and expectant that they find a resolution to their impasse and get workers back on the job for the sake of workers and their families, and the communities in which they reside.”
Western Forest Products has publicly called for government intervention in the strike. The province has the power to call an industry inquiry commission, legislate a cooling-off period, ask mediators Vince Ready and Amanda Rogers to craft a new contract, or legislate an end to the strike.
The Steelworkers, which are the largest donor to the B.C. NDP and funded its 2017 election campaign, have demanded the province stay out of the dispute. So far, it has.
“I know that it is not lost on anyone at Western that as we enter the new year, we also enter the seventh month of this strike, and the profound impact that has had on our people, their families and communities continues to be of concern,” the Western Forests vice-president of human resources, Jennifer Foster, wrote in an internal message to company employees Wednesday.
“You may have read in the media the mediators were to call the parties back to the table. While I remained in contact with the mediators since the last strike update and throughout the holidays, at this time no new talks have been scheduled.
“We will continue to do our best to find the right balance between respecting the process and keeping employees informed.”
Steelworkers B.C. director Steve Hunt, who is not on the bargaining committee with his union’s local, said there remains “an earnest attempt to bring the dispute to resolve.”
“This is straight-old-hard bargaining, this is what it is,” Hunt said Wednesday. “When it’s straight-old-hard bargaining, there’s always the ability to talk and you don’t have to be at the bargaining table.
“There is an ability at any time for the parties to get back together and talk. We haven’t slammed doors and hung up.”
Port McNeill Mayor Gaby Wickstrom, whose forest-dependent community has been particularly hard hit by the strike, said she’s again written to Bains this week to ask him to intervene. Families, businesses and employees are being financially devastated by the length of the dispute, she said.
The situation was only made worse when Premier John Horgan told media in mid-December that he was confident the strike could be settled by that weekend, said Wickstrom.
“I think in particular the premier’s remarks gave a lot of people hope,” she said. “So when they didn’t go back (to bargaining), and they heard nothing, and it just continued on, it has changed now to disappointment and even anger. It’s like, why would you say something like that to us and then do nothing about it?”
Opposition Liberal forestry critic John Rustad said the NDP government’s refusal to intervene is unacceptable.
“The NDP government has a moral obligation to step in and end the suffering of coastal forestry workers, their families and their communities before any more permanent damage is done,” he said.
“There are a number of options government could exercise right now but instead, entire communities are being forced to suffer as a result of their inaction.”