Sides in bitter forest dispute back at table on Sunday
With the longest strike in coastal forest history now into its eighth month, the two sides in the bitter dispute are heading back to the bargaining table.
Western Forest Products and the United Steelworkers will return to negotiations with mediators Vince Ready and Amanda Rogers on Super Bowl Sunday.
In a post on its website, the Steelworkers said: “Hopefully, WFP comes to the table this weekend prepared to change its position on alternate shifting, make revisions to its drug and alcohol policy and withdraw its concessions.”
The United Steelworkers union has maintained throughout the dispute the major sticking points have been alternate shifts, which allow the company to compress work weeks and extend working hours in the logging and manufacturing divisions, and a drug and alcohol policy that the union says targets workers rather than helping them.
Nearly 3,000 Western Forest Products’ employees and contracted workers at six Island manufacturing plants and timberlands around the coast have been on strike since July 1.
There have been no mediated talks since negotiations broke down just before Christmas.
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