Campbell River, BC — La-kwa sa muqw Forestry Limited Partnership (LKSM) is ready to sit down at the bargaining table with the USW at any time, and has been ready throughout this strike, which it has made clear many times to the USW. However the USW has repeatedly refused to do so, as recently as October 24. Despite repeated invitations from LKSM, the USW has also declined both meaningful negotiations and mediation to assist the bargaining process, unnecessarily prolonging this months-long strike.
“LKSM’s First Nations shareholders are dismayed and extremely frustrated by the provincial government’s failure to help both parties to make progress through the appointment of a mediator, especially given the hardships the forestry industry is facing right now,” says Nanwakolas Council President Dallas Smith. “Mediation is an opportunity to bring the parties together and make progress towards a solution and get everyone back to work and the log supply moving again and yet BC still has failed to appoint a mediator after all this time.”
“We applaud the appointment of a mediator in the BCGEU strike and the quick resolution of that strike as a result,” says LKSM’s Operations Manager Greg DeMille. “It is difficult to understand why our company and crews don’t also deserve the benefit of that kind of process when this strike has been going on much longer.” LKSM would prefer to be at the bargaining table but given the USW’s refusal to negotiate or accept mediation and BC’s lack of support for the parties the company has been left with no choice but to take legal action to the Labour Relations Board (the LRB) as the only available recourse to advance the interests of all parties and communities affected by the dispute.
Core Issue: Respecting First Nations’ Rights
At the centre of this is the USW’s demand that LKSM require all new Indigenous contractors to automatically certify with the USW Local. Since its inception, LKSM has held that each Indigenous contractor should retain the right to independently decide whether to voluntarily recognize the union.
This principle is essential to LKSM’s First Nations shareholders (the We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum, K’ómoks, and Tlowitsis First Nations) and fully aligned with both the 2019 Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) and the right to self-determination for Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
“I am very confident that this process can be completed quickly once this issue has been addressed and that everyone can return to their jobs feeling satisfied with the outcome of our negotiations,” says Greg DeMille. “But the USW has to return to the bargaining table. In the meantime the LRB process will help move things forward to resolution.”
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Media contact:
Katherine Gordon (250) 616-6031
Backgrounder: Legal application to BC Labour Relations Board
LKSM has asked that the BCLRB declare that the USW has engaged in bad faith bargaining, based on the USW’s insistence that LKSM must force future contractors, including Indigenous-owned contractors, to tell their employees that they have no choice but to join the USW.
LKSM’s position is that the USW can attempt to bargain an expansion of the bargaining unit but that it cannot force a strike over this issue. The USW cannot table proposals that violate DRIPA. LKSM is not insisting that future Indigenous contractors be non-union, rather, that employees should have a choice, especially when working on their own lands, of if and how to organize themselves.
The USW is free to endeavour to organize any future contractors, through the card check process outlined elsewhere in the Labour Relations Code rather than forcing LKSM to require that all future First Nations contractors must join the USW. Not only would that violate the Code, it also would violate DRIPA and UNDRIP. The application speaks in part to a colonial history in which First Nations were excluded from benefiting from well-paying forestry jobs where they live, a legacy which continues in the USW’s position.
About LKSM:
The Tlowitsis, We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum and K’ómoks First Nations (the “Nations,” all member First Nations of the Nanwakolas Council), and Western Forest Products Inc. announced in March 2024 the completion of an agreement for the Nations to acquire a 34% interest from Western in a newly formed Limited Partnership (the “Partnership”) for $35.9 million. The name for the Partnership, La-kwa sa muqw Forestry (pronounced la-KWAH-sa-mook) means ‘the wood of four’ in the Kwak̓wala language.
The operations of the Partnership cover approximately 157,000 hectares of forest land in the traditional territories of the Nations near the communities of Campbell River and Sayward on eastern Vancouver Island. The Partnership manages an allowable annual cut of 904,540 cubic metres of timber and includes a long-term fibre agreement to support Western’s British Columbia coastal manufacturing operations.
Despite being a majority shareholder in LKSM, the company reflects a different way of doing business for Western in partnering with First Nations in their territories and respecting their constitutionally protected rights of self-determination and free, prior, and informed consent under DRIPA. Decisions of the Board of Directors of LKSM, in situations like this, for example, must be unanimous.
Therefore, even though it is a majority shareholder, the Western Board of Directors members cannot override the views of their Nations partners, even if they wanted to. The mandate of the Board of Directors was set up to be respectful of the rights of the Nations.
About Nanwakolas Council
The four Nations are all members of the Nanwakolas Council. The Nanwakolas Council provides its member First Nations with advocacy and information services, technical support, coordination, and advice to assist them in their decision-making work. That work includes reviewing applications for provincial tenures and permits referred to the member First Nation for their decision and watching over Aweenak’ola through the Ha-ma-yas Stewardship Network.
Through Nanwakolas Council, the member First Nations come together to make decisions on matters in which they share common interests. They unite to uphold their Aboriginal rights and title, using the powerful collective voice on the Nanwakolas Council. The Nanwakolas Council engages with governments, industry, and partners of the member First Nations to protect the rights of the First Nations, and to ensure they are honoured and respected.