union’s request came in response to a plant closure notice that Weyerhaeuser

[stihlatit]

This article can be found at:
http://www.usw.ca/program/content/3680.php


5 OCTOBER 2006 -


Steelworkers Urge Calvert to Look at Withdrawing Weyerhaeuser SK Timber Rights

WINNIPEG -- The United Steelworkers (USW) has asked Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert to begin the process of removing Weyerhaeuser Company’s huge timber rights in the province.

The union’s request came in response to a plant closure notice that Weyerhaeuser issued earlier this week to 300 employees at its Carrot River sawmill and its Hudson Bay plywood mill.

The USW asked for a review of the company’s nearly 5 million hectares of timber rights in Saskatchewan.

“The company has failed to live up to the commitments in its forest license agreement with the people of Saskatchewan. Accordingly we urge you to immediately review their Forest Management Agreements with an eye to revoking the timber, since it appears they no longer intend to use it for manufacturing in our province,” wrote Paul Hallen, Saskatchewan USW local president, together with newly-elected Steelworkers-IWA Council Chair Bob Matters, USW Western Canada Director Steve Hunt and National Director Ken Neumann.

“What Weyerhaeuser is doing in totally unacceptable,” said Neumann. “It is wrong for that firm, which has cut its manufacturing operations in the province down to one OSB mill, to hold onto public forests covering almost 5 million hectares, an area almost as great as Nova Scotia. We believe Saskatchewan should now examine Weyerhaeuser’s license agreement with an eye to removing its timber rights.”

Hallen, a native of Hudson Bay, said people in that small town and citizens of Carrot River are devastated at the news of the planned shutdown.

“This sort of thing tears the guts out of a small town, where not just the logging and processing jobs are lost, but the entire economy depends on Weyerhaeuser living up to its commitments to process the timber we have given it.”

Weyerhaeuser’s latest proposed closures come in the wake of its April 2004 closure of the Prince Albert pulp and paper mill and its closure of sawmills near Prince Albert and at Big River.

In spite of its huge access to public timber, closure of the Carrot River and Hudson Bay mills would leave only a recently-built OSB plant at Hudson Bay. The firm’s recent merger with Domtar Inc. shifted ownership of some Saskatchewan mills to the newly created entity that will run the companies’ combined Canadian assets.

“People in Hudson Bay should also be concerned about the future of the remaining OSB plant,” said Matters. “If they’re only going to run one mill, they only need timber for one mill.”

“We get no signals from Weyerhaeuser that they want to do good with their timber assets in Saskatchewan,” said Hunt. “We say, let’s look at taking away those harvesting rights”.

-30-

CONTACT: Scott Lunny (604)329-5308

 

[Full Skip]

Our Steelworkers union is a bunch of commies. "let's look at taking away those harvesting rights". And then nobody anywhere will work. They've been very successful at running themselves out of work in this country. Maybe they can help Canada not work at all too?

 

[clearance]

Weyerhauser bought the biggest logging outfit here (Macmillan Bloedel) back in the late '90s, lots of private land and the biggest licences in the province, with millions of cubic meters of nice wood every year. They couldn't make it work and sold it. Here, like in Saskatchwan, people will log, the licence system is kind of lame, it subsidizes the lazy and is a free ride, welfare for huge companies actually. So, if you are not going to log and mill it , why should you get the wood?, give it up to someone who can. Full Skip, this story, like the free trade/softwood issue is pretty complex, like Stihlatit found out.

 

[ddhlakebound]

Sounds like part of the licensing agreement in the first place was that the timber company process the wood where it was cut. I see no reason to allow them to continue using the natural rescources of Saskatchewan if they just want to ship the product off for cheap labor milling, to pad their profits. At the expense of the residents of the province, and their land.

Sounds to me like the union is trying to protect the residents of Saskatchewan in this case.

 

[stihlatit]

Weyerhauser bought the biggest logging outfit here (Macmillan Bloedel) back in the late '90s, lots of private land and the biggest licences in the province, with millions of cubic meters of nice wood every year. They couldn't make it work and sold it. Here, like in Saskatchwan, people will log, the licence system is kind of lame, it subsidizes the lazy and is a free ride, welfare for huge companies actually. So, if you are not going to log and mill it , why should you get the wood?, give it up to someone who can. Full Skip, this story, like the free trade/softwood issue is pretty complex, like Stihlatit found out.

Thanks Clearance. You guys work in the industry and should know best. It is your livelihood and the way it looks to me its being lost as is the auto industry and a lot of that is due to legislation and gov rules. Hope they wake up soon before we lose both industries. Below is info on the other mill.

 

[stihlatit]

Almost 4,000 jobs lost following Sask. mill closures: report
Last Updated: Friday, October 6, 2006 | 4:11 PM CT
CBC News
The total damage from the closure of Prince Albert's pulp and paper operation was much worse than the 690 direct jobs that were lost, a government report says.

According to a report from the premier's task force on forest development, which was released on Thursday, the total impact of Weyerhaeuser closures was closer to 4,000 jobs.

In addition to the direct job losses that took place between January and April, there was another 1,380 indirect jobs connected to the Prince Albert operation that were lost.

There were more losses from the closure of Wapawekka and Big River sawmills, which had been feeding wood chips to the pulp mill — 1,883 direct and indirect jobs.

So the total is 3,953 direct and indirect jobs.

The Prince Albert operations represented a $408-million chunk of the province's gross domestic product — about 1.2 per cent of the province's total GDP.

The figures in the report don't include the loss of more than 300 jobs at mills in Carrot River and Hudson Bay which Weyerhaeuser announced Tuesday. Those cuts don't take effect until January.

The report recommends that Saskatchewan's forestry industry needs to place a greater emphasis on value-added forestry products such as high-quality paper and engineered wood products.

Following release of the forestry report, Premier Lorne Calvert dealt with the issue of companies that have forest management agreements — essentially licences to cut trees — yet are winding down operations.

One of the largest of such agreements is the one Weyerhaeuser has in the Prince Albert area. Last year, the agreement allowed 2.9 million cubic metres of wood to be cut, although the actual amount cut was well below that.

Calvert served notice that companies can only hold onto their licences for so long without using them.

"I want to be very clear that we have a tremendous asset here. We have a tremendous workforce here. We have an opportunity to move forward. And I think it's only common sense that if you're not doing business in our province, why would you have access to our timber?" he said.

Meanwhile, if statistics on the ailing forestry industry have been grim, the province got some good news about a booming job market.

According to Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan's job numbers are soaring.

There are 18,900 more people working in the province now than there were a year ago, giving Saskatchewan job numbers that are second only to Alberta's.

 

[stihlatit]

CEP's Dave Coles responds

CEP wants strong message sent to Weyerhaeuser on PA mill
For Immediate Release
October 06, 2006

The Saskatchewan government must be prepared to use its authority to force Weyerhaeuser to either operate or sell its forestry operations, said Dave Coles, Western Region Vice President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

Coles responded today to the final report of the Premier’s Task Force on Forest Development delivered yesterday to Premier Lorne Calvert.

“The report has lots of good ideas but they are worthless if this company can hold a whole province to ransom,” said Coles. “We know that there are forest companies prepared to make paper in Prince Albert if Weyerhaeuser won’t, and we cannot accept the decision of Weyerhaeuser-Domtar to leave these forest operations idle.

“Prince Albert and northern Saskatchewan have suffered enough and waited long enough. We want Premier Calvert to put a ‘use-it or lose-it’ choice to this company.”

The task force report makes 17 recommendations to the province to revitalize the forest industry. However in the late stages of the drafting of the report, Weyerhaeuser struck a corporate deal with Domtar to transfer management of its Saskatchewan operations to a new combined company headed by Domtar management. Negotiations with other companies to purchase the Prince Albert paper mill and other forest operations were broken off and Weyerhaeuser-Domtar management has stated that the Prince Albert mill will neither be sold nor reopened.

 

[stihlatit]

The continuing saga of Weyerhaeuser

Sale of lumber mills back on track

Lana Haight
Saskatchewan News Network; CanWest News Service


Saturday, February 17, 2007


SASKATOON -- The sale of lumber mills in two Saskatchewan communities is proceeding after being on hold for several weeks.

"Things are sort of beginning to gain momentum," said Kris Hayman, director of marketing for C & C Wood Products Ltd. of Quesnel, B.C.

While C & C had signed a letter of intent in November to purchase from Weyerhaeuser the sawmill in Carrot River and the plywood mill in Hudson Bay, the plans were halted in January when C & C's president and founder died of a heart attack. Joe Cerasa was in Italy visiting family at the time.

Weyerhaeuser had been trying to sell the two mills for three years. It closed the plants on Jan. 3, putting almost 300 people out of work.

The final documents for the purchase of the mills have not been signed.

This week, an executive from C & C met in Saskatoon and Prince Albert with provincial government officials and representatives of other interested parties, according to Hayman.

The original March target date for re-opening the mills has been pushed back. Hayman isn't sure when the two plants will begin operations. The facilities won't take much work to get ready for business. He's hoping that many of Weyerhaeuser's former employees will be available for hire when the time comes.

"The feeling is that there aren't that many people jumping ship yet," Hayman said.

"People live in these places because they like them. There's always the possibility that some may seek employment elsewhere short-term."

Before the mills startup, a supply of logs needs to be acquired. That hasn't started yet. Hayman said he'll have a better idea within the next three or four weeks of when the two mills will be in operation.

© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007


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