Abitibi Bowater Reaches Deal with Mackenzie Workers

Monday, October 05, 2009 11:56 AM

Mackenzie, B.C. - Sixty workers from the Abitibi Bowater Saw Mill and Planer mill in Mackenzie are heading back to work following their acceptance yesterday of a deal at a meeting in Mackenzie.

A deal has been struck between the United Steel Workers local w-1424 and the company. The deal, according to Brian O’Rourke, Financial Officer for the Union is not typical, “This deal is outside of the box, it is something that we needed to do for the town of Mackenzie”.

The contract is for a six month period and the workers will be using the 14 million cubic meters of wood that sits on the site. O’Rourke says the work may be a positive marketing tool for the mill “We are hoping to get the flow of the wood going that will show any prospective buyer that we have a very viable planer and mill.”

Under the deal agreed to by the company and the workers’, wages remain as they were but the workers will now work a nine hour shift.

The acceptance of the agreement by the workers came at a meeting, attended by 80 workers in Mackenzie yesterday, while the agreement with the company had been reached last Wednesday and Thursday.

District of Mackenzie Mayor Stephanie Killam is thrilled “This is another rung on the ladder to improving the economic climate in the community.” She says the timing of the agreement couldn’t be better “We are heading into another winter, and it could have been very bleak for some, this will help them and help the community improve its economic climate.”

Mackenzie has been hit hard by the downturn in the forest industry which brought about the closure of the Pope and Talbot pulp mill and the closure of the Canfor and Abitibi Bowater mills. Canfor brought one shift back to work over the summer.

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Posted on Monday, October 05, 2009 11:56 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Born in BC on October 5 2009 1:13 PM

Pushing year old wood through is going to prove something alright. But it isnt going to be good.

This is a liquidity move by Abitibi plain and simple. Assuming they have 14M m3 of logs in the yard that has a value of prob half a billion. Sure they are going to loose money but it will create cash for creditors. Anyone who thinks that this is anymore than a short term victory for Mackenzie or the USW is a fool.

That being said 6 months of work is better than nothing. Good for them.

Posted by: mackbc on October 5 2009 3:05 PM

Just want to make a correction ,There is 14 millon FBM of rough green lumber in the yards and about 78 thousand cubic meters of logs in the lake as well as about 50 thousand cubic meters on land for a projected run time of 4 to 6 months

Posted by: metalman on October 5 2009 3:13 PM

Maybe not a fool but optimistic? Good news for 60 workers and their families, too bad it is, like B-inBC says, strictly short term. If you look at the union guys' comments, I think he gets that too, in saying that an operating mill may be more attractive to prospective buyers.
Things will never be the same as they were, but it would be nice to have some kind of viable industry for Mackenzie, Prince George, and so many other Canadian towns.
metalman.

Posted by: Mercenary on October 5 2009 5:33 PM

It may be short term but its still a bit of good news. Perhaps the mills can be sold to someone who wants to run them.

It seems to me that those sawmills never really had any problems as far as run-ability issues were concerned. They weren't shut down because they couldn't produce lumber. The market just wasn't there for them to survive.

Posted by: Palopu on October 5 2009 11:12 PM

I thought these mills were shut down in part because of Abitibi Bowater bankruptcy . The paper/pulp mill was closed because of restructering.

If the paper/pulp mill is not running what happens to the sawdust and chips??? Are they going to be allowed to burn for the next 6 months??? Will Canfor take the chips in Prince George???

In any event, for these mills to operate in the long term, then these questions have to be answered.

Perhaps if we had some forward thinking people in this part of the Country (which we dont) we could find a way, to restart the Pope and Talbot pulp mill, and supply the hog fuel, and chips from the Abitibi mill to them, and save an additional 400 jobs.

This would require some creative thinking, and some millions in investments, so its not likely to happen.

Posted by: Robin Hood on October 6 2009 7:12 PM

The sawmill was shut down long before Abitibi Bowater filed for creditor protection.