About 1,500 sawmill workers impacting 13 sites in northern British Columbia are expected to take a strike vote sometime in the next week or so, said the Williams Lake Tribune Tuesday last week.

The move could impact all of Tolko Industries’ employees in the north (including both mills in Williams Lake, BC), half of all of Canfor’s work force located in Fort St. John, Houston, Isle Pierre and Prince George, as well as the West Fraser planer in Williams Lake, to name a few, said United Steelworkers Wood Council Chair Bob Matters Tuesday.

BC Forestry Strike Vote

The United Steelworkers Wood Council issued a statement Tuesday announcing the vote will be held at the northern forest products mills, whose owners are represented in bargaining by the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations.

“The employers are having one of the best economic years in decades and workers should share in this prosperity,” said Brian O’Rourke, president of USW Local 1-2017.

Lumber prices have been high despite the imposition of U.S. import duties in February 2017, upheld by the U.S. Commerce Department in December at an average level of more than 20 per cent, according to the Tribune. Prices hit record levels in June, pushed by seasonal impact of the 2017 forest fires, severe winter weather and strong demand from the U.S. housing market, said to the Tribune.

United Steelworkers Local 1-2017 is negotiating on behalf of about 1,600 members working at a mixture of independently-owned sawmills and a handful of operations owned by the two majors – Canfor and West Fraser, said the Prince George Citizen also Wednesday.

They include Sinclar Group’s Lakeland Mills and Canfor’s Isle Pierre and PG Sawmill in Prince George as well as Dunkley Lumber near Hixon.
The contract expired on June 30, 2018.