FROM PAGE ONE

of service to $20.00 per month per year of
service effective July 1st, 1983.

e An increase to existing pensioners of
20% effective July ist, 1983.

e A reduction to the requisite hours
required to earn a full year’s pension credits
from 1600 hours to 1500 hours.

HEALTH AND WELFARE:

e A Provincial Board of Trustees to
develop a common text, a common trust
agreement, and acommon employee booklet
for the six Health & Welfare Plans. This will
standardize the benefits covering life insur-
ance, accidental death & dismemberment
and weekly indemnity.

e Effective June 15, 1984 (Coast) and July
1, 1984 (Interior), a $5.00 increase in weekly
indemnity, and a further increase of $5.00
effective on the respective anniversary
dates in 1985.

e Improved Health & Welfare for Medical
Services Plan and Extended Health Bene-
fits.

e Portability of coverage between all FIR,
NCFLRA and IFLRA Association opera-
tions as well as CanFor Ltd., Northwood
Pulp & Timber Ltd., and Weldwood of
Canada without a waiting period.

‘CONTRACT’ GAINS

e Reinstatement of layoff coverage when
employed for ten working days within a
floating 30 consecutive day period.

e Current month coverage for those
employees who work at least one working
day and less than ten in a month.

e Improvements to the AD&D coverage.

e Hospitalization coverage increased
from $6.50 to $8.50 per day.

e Life insurance coverage for employees
who receive LTD benefits.

SENIORITY:

e Seniority retention to be restored after
the completion of one day’s work.
ARBITRATION:

e Improvements to the Arbitration sys-
tem to speed up the process.

e A committee to develop recommenda-
tions for a system of expedited (fast track)
arbitration.

PLIB:

e A proposal to resolve the seniority and
severance pay problems of PLIB inspectors.
RATE DETERMINATION:

e Sawmill rate determination solutions to
outstanding category disputes and agree-
ment to conclude the program by June 15,
1984.

Bay Lumber — the last sawmill on False Creek. This mill with a downtown setting will close permanently in January 1984 to
make room for B.C. Place. It Is an efficlent, high-producing and clean operation that creates no significant pollution problem,

yet an offer to continue operating on the site of B.C. Place to demonstrate to the citizens what the B.C. economy Is all about
was rejected by bureaucrats.

SAWMILL
CLOSURE

The closure of Bay Lumber at the end of
1983 is indeed a sad occasion for the 225
employees who work at that operation. The
eventual fate of Bay Lumber was deter-
mined three years ago when it was
announced that the property would be
required for the site of B.C. Place.

The closure of the operation is significant
not only because of the loss of so many jobs
at atime when jobs are extremely scarce, but
also because it means the end of industry in
the False Creek area. Vancouver needs an
industrial base, and the loss of industry
means a significant loss of revenue for the

PLANT
HISTORY

(From: The Barker)

On December 380, 1983, the final board will
be pulled off the greenchain of the last
remaining sawmill in Vancouver’s False
Creek and the sights and sounds that have
characterized the coastal inlet for almost a
century will pass into history.

The closing of Bay Forest Products repres-
ents the end of an era in both urban and
industrial history. The millis shutting down
to make way for the redevelopment of False
Creek, and there will never be another one
built like it because of rapid technological
progress. It has been people who have
contributed to keeping this mill competitive,
efficient and profitable.

Although the mill which became Bay
Forest Products has occupied the site since
the 1920s, it was the second owner, John
Feigl, an Austrian immigrant and indus-
trialist, who transformed the operation from
a small bushmill into one of the most
efficient sawmills in British Columbia.
Feig] bought the mill from Herman Sing in
1946 when it employed 15 men and produced
15,000 board feet of lumber per day. It was
one of the smaller operations among eight
False Creek sawmills. Since the turn of the
century, these mills, with readily available
transportation, labour and markets, had
formed the core of coastal sawmill opera-
tions.

The Company realized that a secure log
supply was the key to success, and this was
its first priority. The company obtained
their supply from independent logging
contractors who harvested the company’s
public sustained yield units. In 1953, Bay
joined Seaboard Lumber Sales, giving the
mill a more secure market. A new barker
was intalled at the mill in 1955, followed by
a new chipper and barge docking facilities
in 1956, and a new gang mill and band head
rig in 1959.

In 1977, Bay reached its peak production:
140 million board feet that year. With more
than 200 employees, the mill was in opera-
tion 24 hours a day, five days a week. Inside
of 20 years, production had increased by
over 3,000 percent.

In 1978, the mill was sold to Whonnock
Industries, one of B.C.’s major lumber
producers.. Despite mechanization in the
saw-milling business, the mill continues to
rank as one of the highest volume, lowest
production cost mills on the Coast. Urban
redevelopment has resulted in the mill’s
closure.

It is the end of an era of industrial
development in the truest sense.

2/Lumber Worker/Winter, 1983