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Union pulls back on job action at Interior and northern mills

Legal strikes will discontinue for now as union is optimistic, vice president says
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USW 1-2017 vice-president Paul French said the union has pulled back job action for now. Monica Lamb-Yorski photo

The union representing hundreds of mill workers in the Interior has pulled back job action in optimism that talks scheduled for next week will be fruitful.

“There are three days of mediation talks scheduled in the south beginning on November 14,” Paul French, vide-president for United Steelworkers Union Local 1-2017, told the Tribune.

“Because the three players from the north are at the bargaining table in the south from the company side — Canfor, Tolko and West Fraser — we are going to pull back in good faith on any job action because we are not able to meet in the north until something is resolved in the south.”

French said the union pulled the action last Friday, Nov. 2.

“We just took a little while to get it out there.”

Read more: USW strike action concludes one day in Williams Lake

Mills that come under the present bargaining include Babine Forest Products, Canfor Fort St. John, Canfor Houston, Canfor Isle Pierre, Canfor PG Sawmill, Conifex Fort. St. James, Conifex Mackenzie, Dunkley Lumber, Lakeland Mills, Tolko Questwood, Tolko Soda Creek, Tolko Lakeview and West Fraser Williams Lake Planer.



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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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