The union representing workers at Port Moody’s soon-to-close Flavelle Sawmill Co. Ltd. wants city council to rescind a 2018 decision that would allow for future high-density housing on the 14-hectare site. “We’ve been working with the employer since 2018 trying to keep the mill open,” said Al Bieksa, president of the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 2009, which represents the unionized workers among Flavelle’s 70 employees. So the announcement of Flavelle’s owner, the AP Group of Companies, on Aug. 25 that it would close as of Oct. 31 “was kind of out-of-the-blue,” Bieksa said, and the union has been frustrated with its early attempts to negotiate a closure agreement. “We thought the commitment from the employer was to keep the mill open for maybe even another 10 years,” he said. Company vice-president Bruce Rose blamed rising property taxes and port authority water-lot lease rates that made milling operations “just not economic” as the key reasons for the closure.