West Coast Loggers on Strike

[1I'dJak]

Well all the union loggers on the west coast are now on strike....could be a long one....companies say they're losing money right now due to the slack US housing market.... loggers say they're not striking for money but for safetly and cutting down on the contracting out...plus i think alot of them don't the the 4 on 4 off shift that Western Forest Products has them working... Western is the giant on the coast here...they've bought all the other companies TFL's (license to log crown land) on the island...so it'll probably be long... all our windfirming and standing stem work is on union land so us climbers are shut down (even though we're not part of the union)...so i guess its time to start drumming up some residential work...

 

[sILlogger]

we don't have logging union around here, but what island are u speaking of that the cutting is taking place? striking is never good, "can't we all just get along"??

 

[clearance]

The strike involves coastal British Columbia (Canadian province way bigger than Texas, between Washington state and Alaska). The union is United Steelworkers of America, formerly here it was the I.W.A. (International Woodworkers).

 

[sILlogger]

loggers are in a steelworkers union?? interesting... that is a big chunk of land, i really wanna cut some timber in that area some time(PNW)

 

[clearance]

I would like to fall some of that too, really big wood, like over 10' through at the butt. Most I have ever cut is like 120-130', 3' at the butt.

 

[sILlogger]

ive done 6 1/2' at the butt, but the tallest ive cut was prolly in the 110-120' range. i just wanna try out the different type of wood, all i've ever cut was hardwood, i wanna see what a 046 with a 32" bar wood be like, cuz in oak you would be better off with a butter knife

 

[ropensaddle]

Well I hope I'm wrong but the new synthetic wood is
the way I see it heading as production costs go down
to equal wood costs framing with synthetics no termite
no rot I may be wrong but sure seems like a good future.

 

[1I'dJak]

crap i hope not....mind you there'll probably always be a market for high grade old growth wood like red cedar, yellow cedar, and douglas fir.... I guess the japanese like building their temples with the yellow....beautiful wood when not all twisted...yellow and creamy..... also seems as much of the valley's are logged out and the current harvesting is higher up the slopes, though maybe the wood might not be a huge as in the valley bottoms, man are the grains sure tight.....I hope the strike is resolved sooner than later... last strike, the BC government intervened and imposed a contract, doubt that'll happen for this one... I sympathise with the guys...especially the log truck drivers...though safety always seems the big issue with the companies, these guys work long hours... we work 6.5-7 hours and can hear the truckers driving by our camp as we swill our suds....they start well before us and finish well after us...its unfortunate that the union had a period of being fat cats.....especially the fallers....they were notorious on the island here for doing frick all....father in law told a story of a faller (in the 80's) who'd bring a book, a tent and mosquito coils to work...and thats a 6.5 hr day! Now there are maybe 50 union fallers on the coast and they make less money than the contractor fallers...

 

[treebogan]

Yeah,must have been good!

I felled timber on the Queen Charlotte Islands back in 1999,Canada was the first country outside of New Zealand that I had visited.I was used to falling timber for eight hours and then hook tending for a further six,that was four days on,one off,one on one off!Then I skip to Canada and all I was required to do was fall for six hours!Brilliant!That was for a non union crew doing selective logging,talk about wonderland amongs those Yelllow Ceder and Sitka Spruce!

 

[stihlaficionado]

"synthetic wood"

What the heck is synthetic wood? Are you referring to genetically engineered
fast growth trees?

mark

 

[kkottemann]

Logging is slowing down here as well. It is due to the housing situation currently. The big crunch is is pulpwood, but not for pulp. The OSB plants are not moving the product at all, so they are cutting way back on production and is some cases closing the doors completely. OSB is mostly made of early mearch material and tops and misc. hardwood crap. So the trickle down effect carries over to the pulp market because now there is more supply than demand in which case the pulp buyers will drop their delivered price as well as put a quota on the loggers. As a result of that combined with the rising fuel cost and insurance loggers are going out of business. Its a damm evil cycle that play over and over, year after year. But we are a pretty stubborn breed, which is a good thing, because someone has to do it.