The union representing roughly 2,000 forestry workers in Northern BC, including Prince George and Mackenzie, has issued 72-hour strike notice!
Brian O’Rourke, the President of the United Steelworkers Local 2-0-1-7, says that decision was made after five days of talks with a Mediator broke down on Friday.
He says the notice was given yesterday which means that the earliest they can go on strike would be Saturday morning at 8 o’clock.
O’Rourke says the employer, the Conifer Group, still has concessions on the table and he doesn’t believe that they are taking their proposals serious enough…
“As everybody is aware the forest industry has been riding some pretty high times this last well over a year. Record lumber prices, albeit they may be dropping off somewhat, but nothing near where they were and we just look back at our last agreement five years ago when lumber prices weren’t near as good and we ended up with what we consider a very lucrative collective agreement.”
O’Rourke says despite the strike notice, they are still willing to go back to the bargaining table.
A strike would impact Tolko operations in both Quesnel and Williams Lake, as well as the West Fraser planer operation in the Lake City, Dunkley Lumber and other operations in Prince George, Houston, Burns Lake, Fort St. James, Mackenzie and Fort St. John.
With files from George Henderson, MyCaribooNow