Western Forest Products and United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 are heading back to the bargaining table today, after a busy weekend spent picketing.
On Saturday, striking millworkers took to the water and blocked logs they believed were from Western, from being loaded onto a freighter at the Port Alberni docks.
Chris Cinkant, a Business Agent with the Steelworkers Union, said the unionized longshoremen agreed to stop loading the logs.
On Sunday, Sinkant informed CHEK News that their application to the Labour Relations Board to have the logs offloaded from the ship was denied as the wood had been sold to Island Timberlands, for the purpose of export.
Sinkant says that the striking workers do not have a right to the wood at this point, but the Union would be “exploring all legal options.”
More than 3000 Western employees have been on strike for the past 4 months, and the union says the company’s ability to sell logs and continue being profitable is prolonging the strike.
