Conifex and Its Employees Pump Dollars Into Lakeland Fund
Friday, June 22, 2012 @ 2:56 PM
Frank Everitt accepts cheque from Kevin Horsnell for Lakeland Mill Assistance Fund
Prince George, B.C.- The fund to assist the employees of Lakeland Mills, continues to grow.
This afternoon, Kevin Horsnell, the Chief Operating Officer for Conifex Timber, presented a cheque to Frank Everitt, President of the Steelworkers Union, Local 1-424.
The cheque, in the amount of $12,870.00, was collected through voluntary payroll deduction of Conifex employees, and matching dollars from the company.
The donation should bring the Lakeland Mill Assistance Fund into the $450 thousand dollar range.
While the fund continues to grow, there has been some criticism that as of yet, not one dollar has gone to any of the employees in need. Everitt says the delay has much to do with protection of privacy of the employees and their families “Some of the difficulty has been to get the individuals to put their name forward so they have the opportunity to release private information to them(the Community Foundation) . We’re in the process of doing that, and collecting the names of other individuals as well.” Everitt says the same issues were experienced in Burns Lake but the issues have been sorted out.
Everitt says the Community Foundation will establish the terms of reference for the distribution of funds and will distribute the criteria to those who step forward when the terms of reference have been established.
Comments
The money should have been split up between the employees evenly.
This application and their standards mean if you worked, lived within your means, and saved your money.. you won’t get any of this.
If you partied and did whatever you wanted you’ll get this money.
Plain and simple.
Sorry, mr.pg, Plain and simple, as much as we may wish doesn’t always work.
When you say “split up between the employees evenly”. Are you saying that an Employee on weekend clean up or a new employee on call basis would receive the same as an Employee that has been there for 10 or 20 years or more? Should the people that are still working at Lakelands receive money besides there regular pay check? What about the Employees that were off work for different reasons long before the fire, should they be send money as well?
I would not want to be the one to say where and who gets the money because I don’t believe that it’s “Plain and simple”.
Good luck to the Community Foundation with there terms of reference.
I don’t think anyone who worked there who wasnt working at the time of the explosiion should get anything. There are lots of people who have lost jobs for one reason or another and they don’t have a pool of millions of dollars given to them because they are out of work. Money for medical bills, couselling, help support the families that lost someone to death or injury due to the blast, yes, an umemployed mill worker who just lost his/her job, no. How many mills have closed down around here in the past 10 years? Why are there no “support funds” for them…oh there is, it’s called EI until you hopefully find other work.
It should cover costs for those injured first and foremost… then those with kids for issues related to the kids IMO.
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