Resolute Forest Products Announces Layoffs Amid Softwood Lumber Battle
Hundreds of Quebec forestry workers are experiencing the first sour tastes from the softwood lumber battle with the United States as they prepare for the start of layoffs. Starting Monday, Resolute Forest Products is cutting shifts at seven sawmills and delaying the start of forest operations that will affect 1,282 workers.
Pierrot Fortin, who experienced such heartache during the last impasse in the early 2000s, is again preparing for lost income and uncertainty. “Work stoppages like this are never easy,” said the truck driver who hauls wood from forests in the Lac-Saint-Jean region. “It has an impact on families and everyone is worried.” But the 48-year-old says he’s luckier than some — his house is almost paid and his two children are no longer babies. Fortin feels for young families and older workers who have few employment alternatives in one-industry towns.
The big worry is that temporary curtailments will be extended as companies feel growing pressure from retroactive duties and the prospect of additional preliminary charges to be announced next month.
During the last softwood lumber dispute, Canada shed 20,000 forestry jobs between 2000 and 2006, and about 400 sawmills closed entirely between 2004 and 2009. Unifor, which represents 24,000 forestry workers at 134 companies, fears duties this time will hurt 25,000 Canadian jobs.
La Tuque mayor Normand Beaudoin says any downtime longer than two weeks currently planned for about 100 mill employees would be difficult for families in the small town about 200 kilometers south of the Lac-Saint-Jean region. “In the short-term I don’t have a lot of worries, but if it goes on for one or two years it will do a lot of harm,” Beaudoin said.
From rdnewsNOW.com.
RELATED ARTICLES
Resolute Continues Sawmill Enhancements
Resolute Forest Products Purchasing Three Sawmills
Latest News
How’s Your Log Supply Chain?
Article by Dan Shell, Senior Editor, Timber Processing May 2022 – In between looking for extra employees to fill out another shift or solidify the one or two already in place, or perhaps looking for larger vaults to hold the cash they’ve been putting away thanks to record lumber prices, lumber suppliers would be smart to…
Softwood Lumber Board Updates Board Members
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has reappointed George Emmerson, J.D. Hankins II, Brian Luoma and Brad Thorlakson to serve second terms on the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) Board of Directors. He has also appointed past Director Marc…
PLIB Partners With TP&EE
Hatton-Brown Expositions and Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau announce that PLIB will participate in the Preferred Partner program with Hatton-Brown’s Timber Processing & Energy Expo (TP&EE), which will be held September 28-30 at the Portland Exposition Center in Portland, Ore…
Find Us On Social
Newsletter
The monthly Timber Processing Industry Newsletter reaches over 4,000 mill owners and supervisors.
Subscribe/Renew
Timber Processing is delivered 10 times per year to subscribers who represent sawmill ownership, management and supervisory personnel and corporate executives. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.
Advertise
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.