Expect Canfor's announcement in the days... weeks ahead. It will be 2-weeks minimum for all their mills IMO.

Canfor downtime was already announced. All Canfor mills will be taking two weeks summer downtime that is those that are not down indefinately.
I just don't know where it will end, but sure gives the companies all the power for bargaining a collective agreement. Once again the average guy will get screwed.

You can bet there will be wage rollbacks and reduced benefits & pension with the new Steelworkers contract that is currently being negotiated. The companies couldn't have picked a better time for the contract to expire. Let's hope it's a short one and is up for renewal again in 2 or 3 years when times are expected to be better.

It will be a five year contract and 18% roll back in wages (guessing). This precedence has been set by the CanFor Mackenzie sawmills.

I think if Winton Global settles on a new deal that will be the industry standard. They've already been down for a year now, so the union is null and void I think... and if thats the case it will be the companies terms without any negotiation.

Oh yes it's a contract year for Steelworkers and people are really concerned about the future.The problem with just handing over deduced wages and benefits is the fact Industry has made it clear it's the US housing market thats the the real issue. Even with reductions is there any commitment to restart plants or prevent others from the same fate? Whats the real agenda here? before the melt down Canfor and West fraser invested in the USA using all the money returned from the US softwood agreement. Now they want workers to come to the rescue and save them from what? the most common word in the Forest Industry vocabulary today is INDEFINITE which leaves workers hanging for months and years with no severance, medical or hope, just uncertainty. it's a hard pill for someone that gave their life to a company only to be treated like crap.Industry wants help from Forest workers then they should be able to bring forwarded something intelligent to warrant the support of the public and workers, not just hold their hands out. This should be a team effort working together not one part of the team trying to feed off the other when their under so much duress already.

yep, Forest worker you are right on everythng. I don't they they are gong to be "team players" this time. I doubt they will offer something to warrant the support of workers and public. Not only a rollback in wages, but rollback in vacation pay plus added pension and LTD payement.
However, in the end they may have difficulty keeping tradesmen and good workers. I'm sure these folks will leave as soon as other opportunities come to them.

This letter was sent by email to the editor for publication:

With the announcement on the closure of Canfor’s Rustad Sawmill and now West Fraser taking more curtailments, the picture for forest workers is pretty bleak. Sometimes when a door closes another open’s, but with all the resource industries in decline it can make the road to transition even more difficult.

For those still employed in the forest industry the time for action is now. There are a number of services people can access today that can help give workers some hope and security in the event the worst case scenario happens.

The USW Local 1-424 Assessing Planning Training program (funded by the Federal and Provincial Governments) helps employed forest workers with training and courses that can improve their skills, while they are still working. They should not wait until they find themselves unemployed or worse, unemployable and unable to adapt to new equipment introduced into the work site. It’s a little return for the billions of dollars generated into this Province over the past 65 years.

Forest workers in this region raised their families and supported the economy here in resource communities like Prince George. Now they need some help. Training and courses are definitely a start, but forest workers need jobs. Every business in the region can help in some way. Oil, gas and pipelines may look like the great savour but their not here today.

Government can also play an important role; not only providing training dollars but providing assurance that all the road construction and other infrastructure projects employ local workers. The lame excuse that Government has to get the best dollar value for the tax payer is bogus unless that valuable dollar is spent employing the tax payer. If government has to take a higher local bid that will employee local people then it should. If an out of province contractor is awarded major work, they should be required to hire a major percentage of local workers. After all… BC’s tax dollars should work for BC Tax payers…right?

Don Iwaskow
Prince George

Exactly Don... about the hire local with our tax dollar infrastructure projects.... this lowest bid at all costs, when all we do is take our tax dollars and send them to benefit someone else while our region needs the work... makes no sense.

Our tax dollars should be recirculated in our local economy as much as possible to help through this downturn, and that can best be done by hiring local for local infrastructure projects. Now is not a time to bleed the local economy of tax dollars in addition to starving the local economy of the government expenditures of our tax dollars.

The point can't be understated IMO....