VANCOUVER -- The International Woodworkers' of America, the largest union in the B.C. forestry industry, was to meet with representatives of the major forest companies Thursday, but would not accept wage increase deferments or restraints, a union spokesman said Tuesday.
IWA regional president Jack Munro said the union would not accept wage increase deferments or restraints which had been suggested by Forest Industrial Relations spokesmen as a possible means of combating a recession that has led to widespread layoffs.
In January, some 17,000 IWA members were unemployed and the number was expected to increase by about 155 this month with the recently announced six-week closure of Kootenay Forest Products in Nelson, B.C.
Don Saunders, the chairman of Forest Industrial Relations, which represents the major forest companies operating in British Columbia, said Tuesday the council 'will not be proposing any specific course of action' at the meeting, called to discuss the industry's poor economic outlook.
A meeting scheduled for last week between FIR and the IWA was cancelled after the companies reconsidered their position. The IWA refused to attend a meetingif employers planned to propose wage concessions.
Saunders said 'the purpose of the meeting (Thursday) is to exchange information' in what the council hoped would be one of several consultations with the union.
Saunders, also the chairman of the Pulp and Paper Industrial Relations Bureau, said the forest companies had asked the two major pulp unions in British Columbia -- the Canadian Paperworkers Union and the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada -- to attend similar discussions but had not yet received responses to their invitation.
A CPU spokesman said the union would be willing to meet with industry representatives as long as wage cuts or deferments were not discussed. Aspokesman for the PPWC was not available for comment.
