Striking workers arrested by RCMP

By Dan Hilborn
Published June 12, 2004


Police handcuffed and arrested two strikers outside the Norampac paper mill in the Big Bend region of Burnaby on Wednesday, as an ongoing labour dispute dragged into its second month.

"Our members are getting very frustrated," Communications Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) Union Local 1129 president Dave Hart told the Burnaby Now after the arrests. "We'd like to sit down and negotiate with the company. We don't think that's too much to ask."

The union, which represents about 103 employees at the paper recycling plant, went on strike on April 10 as a result of the company's demand for concessions on their health and welfare package, contracting out and a job evaluation program.

The arrests come one month after the Quebec-owned company received a court order demanding the workers allow trucks to enter and exit the site. When the union refused to comply with the original injunction, Norampac applied for an enforcement order, which resulted in the Wednesday afternoon arrests.

At around 11:15 a.m., a company representative read the court order to the picketers, and all but two of the strikers agreed to move away from the gates. After a police official read the order for a second time, the two remaining picketers were handcuffed and arrested.

CEP members Gene McGuckin and Corie Burleigh volunteered to be arrested. They were charged with contempt of court and have been ordered to appear before a judge on July 19 and 22.

"It's a very civilized way of avoiding breaches of the law," said Sgt. Willy Laurie, police/labour communications officer for the RCMP in British Columbia.

But the president of the striking union is still hoping the company will agree to restart talks, especially in light of the fact that 22 other pulp and paper mills in B.C. have already reached agreement on substantially the same framework. The Norampac contract expired in May 2003.

"It's unfortunate we have to use the courts on these. We believe we should be sitting face to face and resolving these issues," Hart said.

Hart noted that the Norampac mill is the only paper recycling mill in the Lower Mainland, and its prolonged closure is not good for the economy.

"We take all the recycled fibre and make value-added product out of it," he said. "For two months, that product has been going elsewhere."

In a press release issued Wednesday, Hart also wondered where the raw material is now heading. "I sincerely hope that they are not just trucking it to a landfill somewhere," he said.

Norampac Burnaby Division has the capacity to handle 125,000 metric tonnes of recycled paper per year, turning the material into boxes, bags and gypsum products. The Burnaby paper mill is often considered one of the most environmentally friendly industries in the province. In addition to making recycled paper products, the mill gets some of its electrical power from the steam generated by the neighbouring GVRD garbage incinerator.

A spokesperson for the company referred all questions to Norampac's head office in Montreal.

"We're not going to negotiate through the media," she said. When asked if that meant the company would return to the bargaining table, she replied: "I'm not going to say anything."