Dunkley and Lakeland Shortening Work Week

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. - Dunkley Lumber will introduce a three day work week , says Tony Novak one of the principals of the company.

Novak says Dunkley Lumber is being hit, just like all the other producers in the forest industry “We have been losing about $80 dollars on every thousand that we produce and we can’t keep doing that.” 

Novak says the current situation in the industry is unprecedented “In all the time in this business I have never seen such a down turn in the forest industry.”  He says the Canadian dollar’s strength and the American housing market are just part of the problem.

Novak says about 100  workers  will be  affected by the move, “We will continue to operate on a three day basis, day by day until the market turns around.”

The planer mill was shut down recently idling about 25 people at the Dunkley Mill.

Lakeland Mills is also reducing its work week.  120 employees are going to a four day work week, and Employment Insurance will pay the fifth day.  There is no indication on how long that will go one, but the EI participation is available for 26 weeks.

In the meantime more and more lumber producers are upset over the grading of lumber.  Logs are being graded and stumpage charged on the lumber being a grade #3.  When the logs get to the mill and the winter moisture is released, the cracks and real (reduced) value are revealed.

Canfor has already said it has saved dollars on stumpage because it is heating logs first to a summer temperature, before the logs are graded.  West Fraser is doing the same, and Tolko is just now on the same line.

Mills in the Cariboo say the problem is most prevalent there, but also is taking place right across the province.

“It isn’t a level playing field” one operator says, “it is different from many mills and some of them are not paying anywhere near the same stumpage as their counterparts. You just can’t have different rules for different companies and call it fair to everyone.”

Bill Kordyban of Carrier Lumber says, the word plain and simple is survival. “We shut down our operations at Cheslatta, Anaheim is on a single shift and while we are still double shift here, (Prince George) we watch that very closely.”

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