Forestry Town Hall Meeting Tonight
Thursday, February 28, 2013 @ 3:57 AM
Prince George, B.C.- A forestry town hall meeting has been organized for this evening Prince George.
“The forestry industry in and around Prince George has been hard hit over the last decade by job losses, raw log exports, and the mountain pine beetle devastation. Over the last decade, viable mills were shutdown while raw log exports grew dramatically,” says BCGEU President Darryl Walker. “People in forest communities understand it’s not just about the direct jobs in the forest, or related milling and manufacturing jobs, it’s also about the indirect jobs and benefits to local communities that come from forest workers.”
The event, slated to get underway at 6 this evening at the Coast Inn of the North’s Nechako Room, promises to have provincial and local forestry experts on hand.
The event has been organized by the BC Federation of Labour with the support of a number of unions including the United Steelworkers, CEP and the BCGEU.
Walker says that heading into the May 14th election, there needs to be a concerted effort to “demand that government invest in research, reforestation, and compliance and enforcement to ensure healthy forests today, and in the future.”
Comments
Looks to me that this meeting is merely a bash the government, NDP election rally. Theres som very smart people running the BC Forest Servce, but a bunch of sniveling left wing tree huggers think they know better?
What are they going to accomplish, a couple of new sawmills in the area?
“Theres som very smart people running the BC Forest Servce”
Smart or not, they stick arouned no matter who forms the government. Too many forget that.
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“says BCGEU President Darryl Walker” and he is an economist? Forester?
Perhaps he would like to buy a winter residence in the USA and put pressure on the housing market to kick start the industry here.
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“People in forest communities understand itâs not just about the direct jobs in the forest, or related milling and manufacturing jobs, itâs also about the indirect jobs and benefits to local communities that come from forest workers”
Exactly!!!! and that is why there continue to be some raw log exports in part to keep the loggers and truckers working so that they can keep the local grocery shops selling groceries.
If people do not need shoes, shoe manufacturers will not keep producing them. It does not matter what the product is. And people all along the chain will not sit around crying whoa is me over and over again. They go and look for other jobs.
It is a cruel world out there. Survival of the fittest. Darryl is obviously still surviving, but is he the fittest for the job?
We attended this town hall meeting in Mackenzie last evening but left early because it was clearly an NDP rally focussing on defeating the government as opposed to discussing problems and potential solutions.
Mostly union hacks and NDP candidates. Clearly the NDP and unions are on the same campaign bus.
Why would anyone want to start a new sawmill when the first person waiting at the door is the union rep? Very sad. I watched most the sawmills out west shut down over a few years of picket lines always up. No more mills.
anyone paying attention to what the hell is happening to our working forest base. Strikes my ass has not been one in the forest sector for over 20 years. Pay attention to the change in raw log export,as expained by one of the indusdry committee members that quit and went public with his concerns. There are a number of users of the forest, trappers, guides, ranchers,tourism operators.Going to area based tenuer will be a disaster.What the hell are these libs thinking and who is guiding them?
Posted by: onemansthoughts on February 28 2013 10:52 AM
Why would anyone want to start a new sawmill when the first person waiting at the door is the union rep? Very sad. I watched most the sawmills out west shut down over a few years of picket lines always up. No more mills.
I was in the IWA for 20 years, not one strike. In my opinion what killed most of the mills was huge outfits like Canfor and Westfraser. They could cut a board real cheap.
Smaller outfits couldn’t run, their operating costs were just too high to cut a board.
And yup, Companies hate Unions. Why, you can believe whatever you want.
“People in forest communities understand itâs not just about the direct jobs in the forest, or related milling and manufacturing jobs, itâs also about the indirect jobs and benefits to local communities that come from forest workers”
Exactly!!!! and that is why there continue to be some raw log exports in part to keep the loggers and truckers working so that they can keep the local grocery shops selling groceries.
If people do not need shoes, shoe manufacturers will not keep producing them. It does not matter what the product is. And people all along the chain will not sit around crying whoa is me over and over again. They go and look for other jobs.
It is a cruel world out there. Survival of the fittest. Darryl is obviously still surviving, but is he the fittest for the job?
True. The thing is, there just is not much opprutunity in Prince George. You lose your job, and your in trouble.. unless your millwright, electrician, HD mechanic, or highly ticketed welder. BA, MA, or what your degree is in. Just not a town where those jobs are.
People need to help people and the town needs to do its damnest to open up. I believe the best thing to happen to PG since the rail is mining.
The first problem with Unions is that they always expect someone else is going to do what they or their members would never do themselves. Invest in some business that doesn’t make a profit.
The second is that they fail to realise that if there isn’t enough profit for the business to re-invest at least as much of it back into the business annually as its annual depreciation, that business is heading for bankruptcy.
It may, on the surface, appear as if it’s ‘viable’. But what’s really happening is the owners of that business are living off their depreciation ~ which is the same thing as saying they’re living off their ‘capital’ ~ not the ‘income’ its investment was supposed to enable. And if they’re going to have to do that, there’s a lot more enjoyable things to spend money on than losing it all in a sawmill.
To union haters
i also attended meeting in mackenzie and i think that you are wrong the hacks are people like you who slam unions at every chance. With people like you we would we would be all making min wage. Maybe the companies should not pay such high wages to ceo’s. why didn’t you speak up instead of sitting there.
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