Talks break down with striking workers at Western Forest Products

Photo: WFP

Western Forest Products Inc. says negotiations with the United Steelworkers union representing workers in a long-running coastal B.C. strike ended without resolution on the weekend.

The company says no active negotiations are occurring and no future mediation dates have been scheduled after 14 hours of bargaining occurred on Saturday and Sunday supervised by two independent mediators.

CEO Don Demens says the mediators informed the company talks were over after it presented a contract offer.

The strike which began July 1 affects about 3,000 coastal forest workers employed in Western Forest Products' sawmills and timberlands operations.

Demens says the company offered a five-year agreement with a $2,000 signing bonus and wage increases of two per cent per year for the first four years and 2.5 per cent in the fifth year.

He says the company also agreed to drop proposals to modernize agreements, as well as pension plan alternatives opposed by the union, but didn't go along with Steelworker demands for a shorter-term agreement, bigger wage hikes and less shift flexibility.

United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 president Brian Butler says the union would release its position on the matter later Monday.

The company's shares lost five cents or 3.9 per cent at $1.22 in afternoon trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.