BY PAUL KENT
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -Some 2,400 pulp and paper
workers at three different mills are into their seventh month
of a strike, with no end in sight. Two-thirds of the strikers
are members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers
Union (CEP), while the others belong to the Pulp, Paper and
Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC).
Their employer, Fletcher Challenge Canada (FCC), is demanding mill-wide "flexibility" on job classification and contracting out, 365-day continuous production, and a six-year contract. It claims the union has already conceded these demands to pulp and paper mills in eastern Canada.
On January 5 the New Democratic Party provincial government appointed arbitrator Vince Ready as a one-man commission of inquiry into the conflict. As mediator, Ready is assigned to make public his nonbinding recommendations for a settlement to both parties. Ready's appointment comes following a meeting between NDP premier Glen Clark, union officials, and FCC president Doug Whitehead.
Clark called the prospects for a settlement "very debatable." The main issue that has kept the picket lines up since July 14 is the company's drive for "full flexibility, meaning the workers agreeing to do any maintenance work assigned by the company, regardless of traditional trade jurisdictions. The provincial premier, who has not ruled out the possibility of imposing a settlement, complained that the issue "has become a kind of philosophical one .. a holy grail."
The union members at FCC see full flexibility as a life and death issue, however, that will affect job security and safety.
Other workers are following the strike at Fletcher Challenge, the longest in the history of the pulp and paper industry in British Columbia. The 12,000 members of the pulp and paper unions in the province are each contributing $50 per week to provide the strikers with $400 per week strike pay so they can stay out for as long as it takes to push back this assault.
One of the workers contributing $50 per week to the strike is Dana Tillstone, a member of PPWC Local 6. He works as a shift engineer at Macmillan Bathurst in the Vancouver area. Commenting on the importance of pushing back the bosses' demand for full flexibility for himself and others, he told the Militant that pulp mills contain "machinery that has no respect for humans. It can kill you quick."
"Lack of competitiveness is the single biggest negative issue facing the industry in BC and labor costs are one of the most significant factors impacting on competitiveness," asserts Mike MacCallum of Price Waterhouse, a consulting firm commissioned by FCC to study the flexible work practices at mills in eastern Canada.
MacCallum claims that 1996 labor costs at coastal mills in British Columbia were Can$150 per ton - the highest in the world - compared to Can$113 per ton in the BC interior, Can$105 in eastern Canada, Can$87 in the western United States, and Can$68 in Scandinavia (Can$1= US$0.70). He concludes, "The industry in BC cannot sustain labor costs that are higher than competitors in other regions. Return on capital employed is well below what investors can reasonably expect."
Phil Davies, editor of PPWC Local 2 newsletter, questioned the accuracy of these figures. "During negotiations we were given several.... charts and detailed cost break downs. We were told that this was very confidential stuff, so please do not share it with the public. I guess FCC didn't share it with Price Waterhouse either. The cost of labor per tonne at FCC's Crofton mill? [Can]$95 per tonne of pulp produced and only $92 per tonne of paper produced."
Fletcher Challenge says 140 jobs will be shed in the three mills as a result of implementing total flexibility. But workers on the picket line at the Crofton mill told Militant reporters December 27 that at least 200 jobs would be eliminated at their mill alone.
Several strikers at a October 29 march and rally in Vancouver, which coincided with FCC's annual shareholder meeting here, described the implications the "full flexibility" policy would have on health and safety inside the mill. "Full flexibility means they can get a millwright changing a fuse in a 600 volt starter - presently only done by an electrician. This could eventually lead to someone getting electrocuted," remarked Rick McConnell, who works as an operator at the Crofton mill. "In fact I work in the section of the mill where two supervisors were killed last week while inspecting a de- aerator tank that removes oxygen from the water used in the mill's boilers."
Jim Lee, a millwright at Crofton, also felt strongly about the dangers to health and safety posed by the company's demand. "Flexibility wound up killing two supervisors in a steam plant last week," he said, referring to the same incident.
Support for the strikers has come from as far as New Zealand. Pulp and paper workers from the Manufacturing and Construction Workers Union there sent a Can$5,000 contribution to the strikers last month. They toured the picket lines and spoke to meetings of both the PPWC and CEP last fall. A number of pickets this reporter spoke to underlined the importance of this support from unions in New Zealand, where Fletcher Challenge is based.