The strikers, members of the Industrial, Allied and Woodworkers Union (IWA), may soon be joined by 20,000 other members from the South and North Interior regions of the province.

IWA members on the coast bargain with Forest Industrial Relations, which represents 70 Forest companies. Some of the larger companies are Weyerhaeuser, Canadian Forest Products, International Forest Products (Interfor), Timberwest, and Doman Industries. Twenty-thousand IWA members bargain separately with companies in the North Interior and South Interior regions.

Workers in the South Interior have voted more than 90 percent for strike action. The IWA is currently negotiating with Canadian Forest Products in the northern interior, which covers 1,700 union members. This strike is the first coast-wide shutdown since the six-month walkout by the IWA in 1986.The IWA is the largest private sector union in British Columbia.

"We had no choice but to go on strike. The companies refused to discuss anything else except their concessions package," explained IWA striker Darshan Atwal on the picket line at Doman industries in Vancouver. Strikers are in an upbeat mood and confident. Atwal, a lumber grader, has been at Doman for eight years and is near the bottom of the seniority list although he has been working in the industry for more than 20 years. "These concessions will mean that I could easily get laid off," added Atwal.

At the picket line in front of Interfor in New Westminster, a suburb of Vancouver, IWA strikers and members of Local I-3567 spoke about the bosses' drive for concessions. "The number one issue is flexibility. The companies want to be able to eliminate overtime pay, and change our schedules to their liking. Work Monday, Tuesday, and come back Friday, Saturday, and maybe even change our workdays each week," explained striker Paul Dorn, an electrician for 14 years at the plant. "There's no way we're going to accept this, " emphasized IWA member Steve Miskinis.

"With this flexibility, family life will be gone and the bosses will be able to lay more workers off. We should do what the workers in France did--fight for shorter work time to save the existing jobs," added striker Inder Sangha. "What they [the bosses] really want is to have us work seven days a week for awhile then shut down for six months," explained Satnam Bhatha.

Strikers explained that another important issue in the strike is defending their right to earned vacations, which has been in the contract since 1964. The bosses are also attempting to cut back their contribution to the pension fund to 90 cents per hour from $2.40 when it becomes fully funded in two years. The IWA is demanding 3 percent per year wage increases for three years. The forest companies, represented by Forest Industrial Relations, have put 2 percent per year on the table. Bosses are worried about the level of resistance in this major industry to their drive to intensify exploitation of the workers in face of a deepening capitalist economic crisis, declining profit rates, and increased international competition.

Bourgeois analysts point to a glut in the market and low lumber prices of just over $250 per 1,000 board feet today, compared with $410 per 1,000 board feet in 1999. The June 28 Vancouver Sun contended that "the coastal industry is already in crisis caused by the collapse of the Japanese market, lack of access to the U.S., and high operating costs."

Forestry in British Columbia is a major industry accounting for one half of the province's export revenues and cash revenues of $16 billion annually. In 1998 the forest sector employed 91,000 workers. Statistics Canada figures show that the forest industry in 1997 contributed 23.1 percent to British Columbia's gross domestic product. In response to the bosses crying poverty, the financial secretary of the IWA Local 1-3567 explained that "the industry made $250 million in the first quarter of this supposedly terrible year."

Strikers are determined to win. "You've got to do what you've got to do: put up your house for sale, cash in your RRSPs [pension funds]," explained picket Manjeet Besla at the White Pine plant.

As of July 1, the IWA has reached a tentative agreement in the Northern Interior with Canadian Forest Products and other forestry companies covering 4,000 workers. IWA members in this region will be voting on the proposal over the next two weeks. Picket lines remain up on the coast with thousands of forestry workers in the interior regions of British Columbia poised to take strike action.

Ned Dmytryshyn is member of the International Association of Machinists Local 11 in Delta, British Columbia.  
 
 
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