Plywood workers appeal to council

Former employees of the plywood mill appeared before council at last night's regular council meeting to ask city council to consider endorsing a request for a public meeting of all stakeholders and levels of government to try to keep the mill from being moved to Quebec.

Heath Stewart, a former employee of the plywood mill, gave a history of the mill, as well as several economic and social reasons the province should work harder with new mill owners to ensure that opens here and isn't dismantled.

Stewart said some of the employees of the mill have over 40 years of service. The mill had many up and down years, but for the first time they face seeing the mill potentially dismantled. He said the owner has been getting the run around from the government and bureaucrats for months, holding back a wood allocation while they request change after change to the company's business plan.

Stewart's presentation called on the premier to keep his promise to let Miramichi wood benefit companies from Miramichi. He also urged him to do more to help small business as it is the major employer in the province and across Canada.

Several labour leaders will also present at the meeting. In July, the Miramichi District Labour Council sent an open letter to local politicians, hoping they would pitch in and fast track the process to get the mill up and running.

July 11, 2013

Open letter to:

Hon. Robert B. Trevors - MLA, Miramchi Centre

Serge Robichaud - MLA, Miramichi Bay-Neguac

Jake Stewart - MLA, Southwest Miramichi

Bill Fraser - MLA, Miramichi-Bay du Vin

I, like most workers in Miramichi was excited to see the Acton plywood mill being sold, in February, to Jean-Yves Cardinal who wanted to reopen the mill creating over 100 needed jobs on the river. Right after purchasing the mill Mr. Cardinal had the land cleaned up and work done in the mill getting it ready to reopen, but for the past few months their has been little activity at the mill. After inquiring why little progress had be made over the past few months I have learnt that Mr. Cardinal has been unable to obtain the mills wood allotment from our crowns lands.

Just a few short years ago we had a Kraft mill, Groundwood mill, 2 Paper mills, a Plywood mill, an OBS mill and 3 or 4 Saw mills all able to get enough wood and employ thousands of Miramichiers with good paying jobs. Today we only have one saw mill and an OSB mill running which employs only a few hundred workers, so what happened to the wood allotment? Where is our local MLA’s on this issue? Are jobs in the rest of the province more important then Jobs in Miramichi?

It is time for our Miramichi MLA’s to stand up for Miramichi jobs and ensure Mr. Cardinal gets his wood allotment creating jobs in Miramichi.

I ask our MLA’s where they stand on this issue, what they are going to do to get this mill its wood allotment and how they are going to help Mr. Cardinal create jobs in Miramichi?

Danny King

Miramichi District Labour Council