Inside the fight to save BC’s forestry jobs — workers strategize to save the industry

By Zoe Yunker
The Tyee
October 30, 2024
Category: Business & Politics
Region: Canada, Canada West

Jonathan Blacker & Greg Petersen

PRINCE GEORGE, BC — Last year, Prince George Pulp and Paper, shut its pulp machines down permanently. To keep its last paper machine running, a small silver pipe held aloft by scaffolding appeared, linking it like an umbilical cord with its next-door twin. Both mills used to turn wood chips into a slurry of pulp and chemicals, but only the older of the two made paper. …Greg Petersen became president of Public and Private Workers of Canada Local 9 — the Prince George arm of one of the biggest forestry unions in the province. Jonathan Blacker, Local 603 president for Unifor, another forestry union in B.C., has sat in Petersen’s office. B.C.’s forest unions have historically tended to feud. But Blacker and Petersen wave this off as someone else’s battle. …And anyway, uncommon times have led to new alliances. …This sudden collapse wasn’t inevitable, Petersen and Blacker say.

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