e Gary Kobayashi, Local 2171

Log exports not part
of free or fair trade

“T rise to support an extremely important
resolution but it means getting several bodies
of people together who don’t all necessarily get
plone, said Kelowna Local 1-423 president
Troi Caldwell.

Brother Caldwell, speaking on a resolution
calling for free and fair trade in softwood
lumber (and not logs), demanding the federal
government immediately launch into direct
talks with the United States, expressed concern
that not enough was being done to get all
parties together.

Local 1-424 president Fred Carroll said that
right-wingers want free trade in lumber but at
the inclusion of free trade in logs.

“We know what free trade has done for
workers in Canada,” he said. “Ask the sisters
and brothers in the manufacturing (sectors) in
Ontario.”

Local 2171’s Gary Kobayashi said his local
was Recline from the effects of layoffs and the
countervail duties with over 2,000 unemployed
at convention time.

“The very fact is, the countervail duty on
softwood lumber imposed by the U.S.
Department of Commerce is decimating the
coastal forest industry right now,” he said.

“T don’t trust the industry to negotiate a fair
agreement in lumber. Quite frankly, they have
too many vested interests. I don’t want
Weyerhaeuser negotiating with themselves

about trade and lumber. This is a company

8/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 2001

en

° Bill Routley, Local 1-80

Incentives and penalties needed —
to halt raw log exports from B.C. —

This year’s resolution to ban the export of
raw logs calls on the federal and provincial
governments to use incentives and/or penalties
to keep Canadian logs in the country.

Local 1-80 president Bill Routley said the log
export issue has created problems in his local.

“When we’ve seen what’s happened with the
Youbou mill closure and the 210 people there
losing their jobs at the same time that the
company that owned the mill, TimberWest,
(was) ramping up log exports,” he said.

He said TimberWest exported 180,000 cubic
meters in 1997 and last year it exported nearly
1 million cubic meters from southern Vancouver
Island. He said the total export grows when
you include Weyerhaeuser’s private land
exports.

“What we’re seeing, brothers and sisters, is
more and more plants are going down, and yet
we're told on one side by government that fibre
supply is a problem. And here we are seeing
more and more wood is being exported out of
the province of British Columbia.”

He said Japanese lumber manufacturers,
which pay several fold the value for imported
logs, are subsidized by their government with
lower land costs, low hydro costs and grants.

Routley added that U.S. plants can’t compete
with B.C. mills, yet they are getting access to
fir and the best grades of hemlock.

We don’t have any incentive programs in

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that doesn’t lose either way,” he added. “You
know if they think they can get a better deal by
supporting a countervail, they'll do it. If they
can get a better deal by opposing the countervail,
they'll do it.”

Local 2171 president Darrel Wong said it’s
important to separate the export of raw logs
and lumber as local unions are doing on
petitions.

Local members have signed thousands of
etitions on northern Vancouver Island, the
een Charlottes, and in Terrace, raising the

profile of the issues at hand. He encouraged
other locals to get involved as well.

Bill Routley, president of Local 1-80, said
that the U.S.’s protectionist measures are
designed to get at Canada’s raw resources.

“When you look at what they’re after, they’re
talking about logs and trees, and it’s been said
in many of the publications that the real issue
behind this is American access to the export of
timber off our tree farm licenses (and) the
ezport of raw logs off our private lands,” he
said.

Tn his local, Routley said Doman Industries
is on the verge of bankruptcy, as it has lost
access to the American market. The company
doesn’t have enough cash to run logging
operations to feed its mills.

“I think it’s important that we speak out on
these issues when we’re talking about the
softwood lumber deal, because we potentially,
as a local union, could be coming back here a

e Santokh Attwal, Local 1-417

Canada to do more value-added and
remanufacturing,” he said. “British Columbia is
probably one of the lowest in terms of
percentages of jobs created in the value-added
(sector) in the country. And it’s because
government has not paid attention to the need
to facilitate a program to create employment.”

Routley said that p ivate wood is freely
exported even though B.C. mills can take first
dibbs and block those exports, but they don’t.
Instead companies like TimberWest give the
wood from Crown lands and export the logs
from their private timber holdings.

He said most plants that get their wood by
blocking exports will lose those logs if
TimberWest gets its way. The company is
taking the fedeual government to court to
remove any such restrictions to allow the free
flow of logs.

Santokh Attwal of Local 1-417 said the issues
of log exports is an old one and predicted the
I.W.A. will have a tougher time getting the
issue addressed with the Liberal party in
power.

Brother Attwal said the union must take a
stand and prove that it is serious about the
issue.

“It’s got to be a banding of our brothers and
sisters, that those (logs) should belong to the
public and should stay in B.C. and create jobs,”
he added. @

year from now and talking about the disaster
that befell Local 1-80 and we had 600 (Doman)
L.W.A. members thrown out of work,” he said.

° Fred Carroll, Local 1-424

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