The president of Western Forest Products is appealing for Premier John Horgan to intervene in the longest strike in coastal forest history, but the union whose members have spent more than five months on the picket line insists government should stay out of the dispute.
Don Demens, CEO of Western Forest Products, said it’s time for the NDP government to step in on a strike involving almost 3,000 employees and contracted workers at six Island manufacturing plants and timberlands that began July 1.
“We’ve been working at this a long time, and I would say to the premier that it’s time for resolution,” Demens told Postmedia News on Monday. “People are hurting.”
The B.C. government has so far kept out of the dispute between Vancouver-based Western Forest Products and United Steelworkers Local 1-1937. Mediator Vince Ready, who has resolved high-profile disputes between groups like the government and B.C. Teachers’ Federation, has been overseeing talks for months.
“Government is doing absolutely the right thing,” said Brian Butler, Steelworkers’ local president.
“This is not an essential service, it is collective bargaining. We have been in mediation for some time. Collective bargaining is economic warfare from one party to another — in a lockout or strike situation our members aren’t earning what they would normally earn, the company isn’t earning what it would earn, and that pressure should produce a collective agreement.
“The government should not be intervening in this dispute.”
Horgan on Monday called it a “private sector dispute between parties.”
“They are at the table,” said Horgan. “The best mediator in the province, Vince Ready, is there. … I’m hopeful that there will be resolution the next day or so with respect to the coastal forest industry. But these are impasses that are a result of low market prices, a softwood lumber dispute with the U.S., an inability for the parties to come to an appropriate resolution through negotiations.”
Labour Minister Harry Bains said in a statement he is “monitoring the situation … to potentially help both sides reach an agreement to support sustainable forestry jobs in the coastal forest industry.”
“Our government supports the collective bargaining process and I firmly believe that collective agreements are best when negotiated at the bargaining table.”
The Steelworker union is the largest donor to the B.C. NDP. It paid the salaries of the three top NDP officials — including the campaign director — in the 2017 provincial election.
Stories of the ripple effect of economic harm to coastal communities caused by the lengthy strike are beginning to pressure the NDP government.
Transportation Minister Claire Trevena was criticized at a public meeting last week by forestry contractors that pointed out they and other businesses in small forestry-dependent towns are caught in the middle of the strike and are being hurt by its impact, as well as by new NDP forestry policies.
The government could appoint a fact finder to determine which matters remain in dispute, an industrial inquiry commission to improve the chances of a deal, or force unionized employees to vote on the last offer on the table.
Western Forest Products previously called for binding arbitration, which the union has rejected. The company isn’t asking for a specific provincial action, only that government use its authority to bring both sides toward a deal, said Demens.
“The government has a number of tools in their tool box. I’d request they create the environment where the parties can get back to the table and come up with a process that we can trust that will deliver an agreement that recognizes the contributions of the employees, the investments made by the companies and the challenges that the industry faces from a competitive perspective,” he said.
A main sticking point remains the issue of “alternate shifts” in which the company can use compressed work weeks, longer hours per day and irregular days off, said Butler. These are “universally despised by our members,” said Butler.
“We view them as dangerous shifts,” he said. “People are fatigued. A lot of the 10-hour shifts come with split days off … workers don’t know where they are going. We’ve got lots of reports of workers falling asleep coming or going from work, or falling asleep on the job.”
That’s combined with a drug and alcohol policy that Butler said is resulting in tests for minor incidents and most often leads to terminations instead of rehabilitation.
Demens said the company has already dropped most of its proposals — including options for pension plan reform — to try to get a deal. But shift flexibility during a time of slumping prices and global uncertainty is necessary for the business, he said.
“We try to work with our crews on shifting,” said Demens. “We’ve offered that to the union that we would engage with them on meaningful discussions on shifting. But to have this industry successful when there’s so many challenges from a competitiveness perspective, and having the union have full veto rights over shifting is not going to work very well.”
The last offers on the table were from November.
Western Forest Products offered a five-year term with a $2,000 signing bonus and wage increases of two per cent per year. The company dropped a proposal to let members opt out of the union pension plan, as well as changes to contracting out, vacation, training and other issues.
The Steelworkers asked for a four-year term with three per cent wage increases each of the first two years and 2.5 per cent each of last two years, as well as increases to benefits, control over alternate shifts, changes to the drug and alcohol policy and other working improvements.