[mobglob-discuss] Haida and loggers

[Macdonald Stainsby]

The  Vancouver Sun       Tuesday, June 4, 2002

QC loggers walk off job, join Haida 

     Weyerhaeuser crews fearful of job cuts say they'd rather throw their 
    lot in with natives
  
     By  Gordon Hamilton

A group of Queen Charlotte Islands loggers walked off the job Monday and
announced they were joining forces with the Haida in their fight for
aboriginal control over island resources.

The loggers, upset with forest company Weyerhaeuser over its islands
operations, say they would rather take their chances with the Haida than the
status quo.

They announced their shift in allegiance Monday at what they called a day of
celebration with the Haida at the native village of Skidegate. About 350
people attended the show of support for aboriginal title to forest lands. Of
155 resident forest workers, 135 have stated their support for the Haida,
say organizers.

"There's no work at Weyerhaeuser today," said Council of Haida Nations
president Guujaaw, who uses his single Haida name. He welcomed the loggers
and their families as allies in a battle that is aimed more at the
provincial government than at the logging company.

"This is pretty major. These are the actual workers for Weyerhaeuser,"
Guujaaw said of the unprecedented shift in logger support.

He said there are internal problems between Weyerhaeuser and its employees
on the islands but the loggers' day off is not simply a workplace issue.

"This is now a political issue."

Guujaaw said although the Haida have a reasonably good relationship with
Weyerhaeuser, they do not support the existing tenure system governed by
provincial regulations.

Loggers said they are worried that they will soon be out of work if the
forest company's control of island logging is not broken.

"This is a step to tell Weyerhaeuser that we are sick and tired of what they
are doing on the islands, what they are doing to the people and to the
communities," said logger Bernie Lepage, one of the organizers of Monday's
protest. "We are making this statement to the provincial government as much
as to Weyerhaeuser.

"We are saying we have had it with you. We know our friends and neighbours,
the Haida, are more about communities than are big governments, big
corporations and even big unions."

The loggers say they switched allegiances because of the uncertainty they
feel over future employment with Weyerhaeuser. The company is considering
consolidating operations of resident workers and transient workers living in
logging camps. If that happens, many of the residents fear they will be
thrown out of a job and have to leave the islands.

They say they want the harvest level dropped to half its current level, they
want proposed Haida protected areas removed from the official harvest
numbers and they want what they term more responsible logging on the
islands.

"We are backing the Haida," said Lepage. "We would like to work with them in
some form or other, with the Haida being our employers."

Current harvesting levels are compromising the sustainability of
forest-dependent communities on the islands, said logger Dale Lore.

In response to the loggers' day off, Weyerhaeuser shut down all its
operations and sent managers to the Skidegate event.

The Haida are seeking greater resource control over the islands and last
February won an important victory when the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled both
the forest company and the province have a duty to consult with them over
logging issues on its Tree Farm Licence 39, which entitles Weyerhaeuser to
harvest 1.2 million cubic metres of timber a year from the islands.

Weyerhaeuser has asked the court to review its decision. The review is
taking place in Vancouver today.

But while the issues are before the courts, logging continues at a rate both
the Haida and the workers say is too high. "As we inventory it, it seems to
be going out the back door as fast as we can map it," said Guujaaw.

Weyerhaeuser legal counsel Anne Giardini said the forest company is in
discussions with the Haida over developing a business relationship on the
islands and the company has done everything it can to maintain employment on
the islands considering the issues affecting the entire coast forest
industry.

"These are uncertain times on the coast generally. People are concerned and
if they can hitch that concern to a wagon I think they will do that."

The show of support by resource workers for more aboriginal control comes as
coastal loggers are being laid off, log exports to the United States are
increasing, sawmills are closing, and corporations -- faced with problems
selling into export markets -- are seeking ways to cut costs.

Giardini said that on the Queen Charlotte Islands, the real issue is the
role of the Haida in ensuring a sustainable harvest and what their economic
involvement will be. 

Lore said loggers on the islands fear if they do nothing they will share the
fate of resource towns like Tahsis, Gold River and Youbou: Vancouver Island
communities devastated when the main forest industry employer shut down. 

Email Gordon Hamilton at: ghamilton at pacpress.southam.ca 



-------------------------------------------
Macdonald Stainsby
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In the contradiction lies the hope.
                                     --Bertholt Brecht