Two months later, the strike is holding strong. Workers are demanding that the company establish a safety officer elected by and responsible to the union membership. Over the past four years, they say, four workers have been hospitalized with severe burns. Strikers note that last year the company was written up twice by the Workers Compensation Board for inadequate training and supervision.

CEP western region vice-president Dave Coles told the union journal that Eurocan “has been violating the collective agreement at every opportunity for the past five years. The membership has said enough is enough.”

The company has also brushed aside seniority agreements in its promotion and hiring practices, prompting the union demand that higher-seniority workers get priority for training on better-paying jobs.

CEP Local 1127 members, who work in another section of the plant, are honoring the picket lines. The strike has forced the closure of the company’s Terrace sawmill. On Friday July 18 a Petro Canada truck crossed the picket line with fuel for the plant. The union has called for a boycott of Petro Canada and its products.

The Eurocan strikers took solidarity and news of their struggle to a Local 198 barbecue at the Carnaby saw mill July 3. The mill workers have been off the job for more than two years. They are demanding that Northwest Pulp and Paper, which bought the mill from Skeena Cellulose, fork out severance pay.

When Local 198 members heard recently that parts of the mill are up for sale, they immediately set up a barricade of the facility. Coles told the union publication that severance pay owed the workers totals almost $3.5 million. “They are prepared to fight on and we must support them and their families,” he said.  
 
 
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