The union representing more than 15-hundred forestry workers in Northern B.C. is now armed with a strike mandate.
Brian O’Rourke is the President of the United Steelworkers Local 1-2017…
“We had over 16-hundred members vote at the ballot box with just over 15-hundred of them giving us strong support of a strike mandate, we had 93 percent overall.”
O’Rourke says the plan now is to get back to the bargaining table…
“During this week here we’ll notify the spokesperson for the Conifer Group and see when we can set up some dates when we can all get back to the table and try to negotiate a fair collective agreement for the members out there.”
The vote follows several rounds of bargaining with the Council of Northern Interior Forest Industry Relations.
These negotiations cover Tolko’s operations in Quesnel and Williams Lake as well as West Fraser’s planer operation in the Lake City, as well as operations in Prince George, Houston, Burns Lake, Fort St. James, Mackenzie and Fort St. John.