Forest management firm, union reach deal

Mosaic’s Island shipping facilities to be unionized

Mosaic Forest Management, the timberlands manager for TimberWest and Island Timberlands, and the United Steelworkers have struck new deals that both sides say will allow for increased collaboration between union and management and certainty for workers at Mosaic’s operations.

The agreements-in-principle pledge to establish long-term security for union members and improve flexibility when it comes to the movement of contractors, equipment and logs.

Brian Butler, president of the Steelworkers, said the deal has been in the works for a while and both sides will be pleased it’s all but done — it still requires union ratification. Butler said there was no appetite on either side for another long dispute like the one that idled Western Forest Products for eight months last year.

In February of this year Steelworkers started returning to work at Western after an eight-month strike put 3,000 workers on the picket line at six Island manufacturing plants and timberlands.

The new collective agreement with Mosaic is patterned on the Western deal. “It’s good news for our members who won’t have to go through protracted negotiations,” he said.

The new deals include the unionization of Mosaic’s shipping facilities at Island Terminals at Duke Point and South Island Logistics in Crofton and a renewed collective agreement between the union and company at Mosaic’s Northwest Bay Operation near Nanoose Bay that will run until 2025.

“Working together with Mosaic on unionizing the shipping facilities also reflects our collective desire for policies that support access to both international and domestic log markets,” said Butler. “Given the current context, the [union] supports immediate temporary relief on federal log export policy for private land to kick-start the coastal forest sector, on which thousands of workers and communities depend.”

Butler said the new deals mean certainty for about 650 unionized workers on the Island and flexibility for many of the workers.

“Most of Mosaic’s operations use union contractors and this agreement allows use of those contractors across operations,” he said, noting if they are laid off at one operation they have the chance to move to another of Mosaic’s facilities.

Jeff Zweig, chief executive of Mosaic, said the company’s operations can now be better configured.

“We are striving to deliver the best social, economic and sustainability outcomes, consistent with the realities of the international markets in which the B.C. coastal forest sector must compete,” he said. “This agreement will certainly help to create the conditions for Mosaic to restart production.”

Most of Western’s operations have restarted, though there were delays as new safety protocols were put in place to deal with the pandemic.