Associated Press
NANAIMO, British Columbia — About 140 angry, laid-off mill workers converged on City Hall and Weyerhaeuser’s local office to protest the export of raw logs to the United States.
Members of the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada Local 8 and Industrial Wood and Allied Workers Local 80 crammed into the foyer of Weyerhaeuser’s office on Friday, then headed to City Hall when no one from Weyerhaeuser would talk to them.
Nanaimo legislator Mike Hunter, the only local politician to show up, said the provincial government agrees that British Columbia logs should not be exported to the United States, but he said that is a Canadian federal decision.
About 150 workers at Weyerhaeuser’s Island Phoenix mill in Nanaimo have been out of work for three months.
Doug Muir, pulp union national president, said there will be more rallies. "We’re going to keep making noise till they start to listen to us," he said.
Mill workers are angry with companies such as Weyerhaeuser and TimberWest, which have been increasing raw-log exports from their private lands, while many B.C. mills remain idle.
Weyerhaeuser spokeswoman Sarah Goodman said the Island Phoenix mill is geared for larger logs, not the smaller, second-growth logs being exported.
In another sign of British Columbia’s worsening economy, the provincial government on Thursday announced 11,700 civil-service job cuts, including 1,400 Forests Ministry jobs.
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