Steelworkers Reject Canfor Deal
Prince George, B.C.- It is back to the bargaining table today for the United Steelworkers and Canfor.
89% of the voting membership voted to reject the last contract offer from Canfor.
“The main area of concern was shifting and a competitive clause” says Local 1-424 President Frank Everitt.
“The membership know what they want, and they certainly didn’t want the shifting or competitive clause, I heard that loud and clear. “ The shifting clause called for a 5/10 split, meaning workers would work 4, ten hour shifts, have one day off in the middle of the week in addition to weekends off. Currently, if a member works four ten hour shifts, they will get three days in a row off. Everitt says the proposed change was viewed by workers as being too “disruptive” and they wanted no part of it.
The package was a 5 year deal that would have given wage increases of 3% the first year, two percent in the second, 2.5% in years three and four, and a further 3% in year five. There were also cash payments, including $400 when the deal was ratified, and $1,000 in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Everitt says turnout for the vote was high, with 1269 of a possible 1400 ballots being cast.
But today, Everitt says it’s back to the bargaining table to see if something can be worked out “I am hopeful the big issues can be taken care of.”
The Steelworkers have a strike mandate which is in effect until the end of January.
Comments
Still think public sector unions are the only greedy ones?
boo hoo. I have an awesome job but it might disrupt my schedule. Wha.
Posted by: Krusty on December 10 2013 7:13 AM
Still think public sector unions are the only greedy ones?
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I have absolutely no problems with a private sector union making demands that some may think are greedy. If I want to, I can chose not to buy Canfor’s products. Unlike the public sector, when there is no work we the taxpayers are not forced to keep paying exorbitant wages and benefits to people who aren’t doing anything.
That doesn’t look like a very bad contract offer from Canfor. Too bad our city employees cannot be offered something fair like this.
Posted by: Jim13135 on December 10 2013 8:51 AM
That doesn’t look like a very bad contract offer from Canfor. Too bad our city employees cannot be offered something fair like this.
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Good grief. How about keeping your socialist rhetoric over in the CUPE article?
I wonder what the advantage of a split shift is.
Why not operate the mill 7 days a week. First week four days on, second week is three days on. The other shift gets the opposite. So the mill operates 7 days a week and the guys get 3 and 4 days off.
two week shut down at Christmas, two week shut down during the summer for major repairs as required. Meaning the mill gets 336 days of production, instead of about 250 days. the days of working 8 to 5, 5 days a week in a plant is disappearing anyway. The workers don’t mind pounding in the 11 hour days, knowing they have extended weekends.
I guess its too revolutionary of an idea.
Asman…take a pill. ;-)
He Spoke.
I am pretty sure this is a Canfor sawmill, not a pulpmill. They need to have weekly maintenance. I don’t think they can operated 7 days a week.
I have no information why the mill wants to shut down on Wednesday. Maybe they want to clean up the sawdust twice a week instead of just on the weekends?
One day off in the middle of the week is bogus. Canfor will have to do better if it wants to settle this contract.
Not sure what the competitive clause would be.
Axman says … Good grief. How about keeping your socialist rhetoric over in the CUPE article?
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Why should a worker at the City settle for less than a Canfor worker? …. Let me guess, the City worker gets paid from your tax dollars while the Canfor worker is paid from revenues derived from harvesting public provincial resources … and I would make a friendly wager that Axman is in the private sector ;-)
The real question should be, “How can Canfor afford to offer so much more than the City?” … maybe Canfor is not paying enough taxes locally to cover off their share of the costs of the City workers
Canfor is making a fair offer because they would rather have a smooth working business making profits than a labour disruption that nobody wins in.
The city of PG wants to push the unions into a strike, that was more than obvious by them bringing in a high priced lawyer to do the dirty work for them.
Canfor is another mega corporate giant that makes millions in profit. They pollute the environment and their workers They push the employees and they Have to work in a toxic environment. They need to treat the employees better and compensate them for this.
Stick to your guns union, you have my support
Skilled mill employees are more mobile than most City workers. If the mill owners don’t offer competitive rates and conditions they won’t have enough employees to turn the trees into 2x4s. At $380/MFBM, trust me, there will be no strike.
anotherside; you hit the nail smack on the head!
http://www.pgfreepress.com/prince-george-business-property-tax-rates-among-the-lowest/
Industry tax rates are right in there as being one of the lowest. Time they started paying their fair share!
Posted by: anotherside on December 10 2013 11:48 AM
Why should a worker at the City settle for less than a Canfor worker? …. Let me guess, the City worker gets paid from your tax dollars while the Canfor worker is paid from revenues derived from harvesting public provincial resources … and I would make a friendly wager that Axman is in the private sector ;-)
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You forgot to mention that those public provincial resources are paid for via stumpage fees by the company.
one thing that was neglected to be mentioned in the above article was the introduction of employees giving up their seniority, also the employees gave up a percentage of their holiday pay in the last contract for canfor to invest, now they don’t want to pay on that return of capital investment… this is the tip of the iceberg in this bargaining process, there was a lot of stuff that didn’t make the highlights in the article above… so 4/10 split shift was not the only reason the contract was turned down.
” Posted by: livin the dream on December 10 2013 5:11 PM
one thing that was neglected to be mentioned in the above article was the introduction of employees giving up their seniority,”
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I have no problem with that. Merit should count for a whole lot more then longevity.
Jim so why do you think Canfor is making a fair offer when every thing our for fathers worked hard for will be gone with a YES vote our seniority will be gone our rights for every thing in the job place , contractors will replace maintenance ,no more forty hour work week if they get the 4 10 split they will be laying off approximately 20 jobs at my mill alone, and I bet you didn’t know that Canfor already has a mill in china and where shipping raw logs as we speak, and they want to build another mill in china rumor has it that when they shut down the quesnel mill the equipment will be shipped to china, resulting in further job loss… so lets protect what we already have.
maybe the city workers should be looking at the increases their managers make:
In 2007 Bill Gaal made 99,991.85 and in 2012 he made 153,835.12 that’s 46.49%. Gusdal started in 2010 at 75,065.32 and in 2012 made 109,482.32. In 2007 Kathleen Soltis made 132,410.62 and in 2012 made 192,579.97 that’s 39.1%. Ian Wells in 2007 made 99,118.49 and in 2012 135,927.24 that’s 32.88%. Bob Whitwham in 2007 made 134,297.20 and in 20012 made 166,324.87 that’s 22.28%.
Just saying……….
Thanks for the numbers guesswhat… WOW!!!
people forget that mill workers dont work 9 to 5, they jump from dayshift usually 6am till 4 for 2 weeks then to night shift 5 to almost 4 in the morning for 2 weeks. now you want them to break that schedule up with days off in the middle of the week? When are there bodies supposed to figure out when to sleep?
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