Forestry Workers' Struggles
Across the Country
Support the Just Demands of Striking Coastal Forestry Workers
Striking WFP workers rally in Nanaimo, November 6, 2019.
Coastal Forestry Workers, members of United
Steelworkers Local 1-1937, are approaching the eighth month of their
strike against Western Forest Products. In late December the bargaining
committee met with local members in Port Alberni, Ladysmith, Powell
River, Campbell River and Port McNeill to discuss the status of
bargaining and mediation and to address the pressure being put on the
workers through statements and actions of some local community leaders
and logging contractors. Citing the extreme hardships that are being
experienced in these communities as a result of the shutdown of
forestry operations, there were demands that the provincial government
intervene to impose an arbitrated settlement.
 Despite the many
months on strike the workers are standing firm in their demands for a
negotiated collective agreement which protects their rights to safe
working conditions, job security and dignity on the job. Western Forest
Products is currently refusing to participate in mediation with two
government-appointed mediators, Vince Ready and Amanda Rogers.
The main issues in dispute concern the employer's
contractual right (imposed in binding arbitration in 2004) to
unilaterally impose shifts with extended hours; split days off and
other conditions that are not only dangerous but are also inferior to
the minimum standards set by the Employment
Standards Act in BC; WFP's contracting out of work; and
the company's anti-worker drug and alcohol policy.
In an effort to get the employer back to mediated
talks the union revised its proposal on alternative shift schedules
over the Christmas break and presented it to the mediators on January
9. After the mediators presented this new position to WFP they reported
back to the union bargaining committee that WFP would not comment on
the union's proposal nor would it return to mediation unless the union
agreed to concessions on contracting out. What WFP wants to do is split
logging operations between contractors who would take over specific
aspects, with falling going to one contractor, yarding, trucking,
road-building, dry-land sort -- all to different contractors. As is
already the case in other contracted out operations, contractors would
compete for the work, bid low, and then, to ensure their profits, cut
corners and cheat the workers on benefits, overtime, travel time, etc.
The workers end up isolated from one another and deprived of their
collective strength to defend their rights.
 The bargaining
committee, in its bulletin of January 10, explained that this is a
union busting proposal that the company has been pushing since 1986.
"Our Union had a 4 ½ month strike in 1986 in which the Union
gained the contracting out protection we have today (Article 25). WFP
proposed gutting our members' rights by contracting out during the 2014
negotiations, but withdrew the demand and reached an agreement that led
to exceptional profits and put the Company in a sound financial
position. Now in 2019/2020 negotiations, they are again demanding our
members' jobs be contracted out."
In response to the appeal of some Mayors and
council members in the affected communities, that the government
intervene to put an end to the strike, the union undertook a series of
meetings with elected officials to explain the issues in dispute and
why a negotiated settlement and not a contract imposed through
arbitration was in the interests of the workers and the communities.
Referring to the conditions imposed by the BC Liberal government
through arbitration in 2004, the bargaining committee explained "That
appointed Arbitrator stripped away USW members' rights to have safe
working conditions, when they ripped up the workers right to maintain
an eight (8) hour work day and imposed long hours and erratic shift
schedules that have workers performing dangerous work while impaired
from fatigue and other stressors. The Arbitrator also allowed for a
massive contracting out of jobs within the coastal industry, when it
introduced Woodland contractors. This shameful action in 2004 set the
wheels in motion that created the unsafe and unfair conditions workers
face today." It was government intervention in 2004 that resulted in
the imposition of working conditions that do not meet the minimum
standards that apply to all workers in BC.
President of USW Local 6717 travels from Saskatchewan to Vancouver
Island at the end of 2019
to bring solidarity and financial support to striking forestry workers.
In the affected communities fund-raising
activities and other expressions of support for the forestry workers
continue, the most recent being a barbecue in Campbell River organized
by Loonies for Loggers which raised almost $12,000 on January 25. The
bargaining committee reported in its most recent bargaining bulletin
that in meetings with Mayors and council members in the affected
communities workers were able to explain their insistence on a
negotiated settlement that protects their job security, safety and
dignity and received a positive response.
The broad community support for the striking workers was reflected in a
visit to the picket lines by Port Hardy Secondary School students who
baked cookies for the strikers. An elementary school class also visited
the lines in December 2019 to sing carols to picketers.
This article was published in
Number 4 - February 4, 2020
Article Link:
Forestry Workers' Struggles
Across the Country: Support the Just Demands of Striking Coastal Forestry Workers
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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