North Cowichan won’t send a letter to Premier John Horgan asking that the government stay out of the seven-month-old strike at Western Forest Products’ facilities.
With Coun. Kate Marsh absent at the council meeting on Jan. 29, the motion to send the letter failed in a 3-3 tie vote after a lengthy debate.
Coun. Rob Douglas, who introduced the motion, said it’s important workers’ rights in the bargaining process between WFP and the United Steelworkers be respected.
“There’s a lot of arguments out there for the government to step in and order everyone back to work,” Douglas said.
“The [bargaining] process must be allowed to play out, and it must be respected.”
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Mayor Al Siebring said he agreed that the municipality shouldn’t take sides in the labour dispute, but that telling the government not to intervene is not a neutral act.
“It’s the United Steelworkers who are asking us to do this,” he said.
“I find it ironic that in the [union’s] strike update on Jan. 10, [United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 president] Brian Butler goes after a number of local government mayors stating they are working as proxies of WFP. He is saying ‘don’t take sides unless you take our side’. That’s not being neutral.”
About 3,000 coastal forest workers and contractors working for WFP, including many in the Cowichan Valley, walked off the job on July 1 over potential loss of pensions, seniority rights and long-term disability benefits.
The latest bargaining talks between the two sides started on Feb. 2, but broke off again soon after, with mediators walking off the job, saying the two sides are too far apart.
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Siebring said he and other B.C. mayors are scheduled to soon meet with Horgan to discuss a host of issues, and it’s not his intention to tell the premier what he can and can’t do.
He said he would rather change Douglas’s motion to have it state that council does urge the government to make every reasonable effort to help end the strike, but not to request that the province abstain from any direct intervention in the dispute.
“For me, it’s about the principle that we don’t take sides,” Siebring said.
Coun. Tek Manhas said he understands that the collective bargaining process works in many instances, “and that’s the way it should work.”
“I’m conflicted on whether the government should get involved [in the strike],” he said.
“I’d like to see the government do something; whether it be calling for a cooling off period or get the two parties together somehow without actually directing an outcome to the situation.”
Douglas said no groups are impacted as much in the labour dispute as the striking workers.
“The workers elect the union’s leadership, so when we say the union’s position, it is the position of the majority of the workers,” he said.
“If it wasn’t, the union’s membership would not have elected them. They want a fair deal, and that would be jeopardized as soon as the government intervenes and orders them back to work.”
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Siebring said it’s true that the workers on the picket lines are affected by the long strike, but at least they get strike pay.
“It’s the third parties out there, like the contractors and suppliers, that concern me more because they are laying staff off as a result of the strike, and they are not getting any strike pay,” he said.
After the motion to send the letter failed in the tie vote, with Siebring, Manhas and Coun. Deb Toporowski opposed, Siebring said he will be very careful with what he says on behalf of North Cowichan to the premier about the strike when he meets him at the upcoming meeting.
robert.barron@cowichanvalleycitizen.comLike us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
