About 2,000 forest workers in northern B.C. have reached a tentative labour agreement with employers after more than a year without one, the union announced Wednesday.
The United Steelworkers’ B.C. Interior bargaining committee (USW) reached the tentative four-year pact with the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations (CONIFER) for workers in its USW Local 1-424 and 1-425 units.
Spokesman Bob Matters said full details of the tentative agreement would be provided to members at a series of ratification meetings in the weeks ahead.
According to the union, the potential contract would expire July 1, 2013 and include enhanced job security, improved health and welfare benefits, a stabilized long-term disability plan and “improved” contract language on permanent and partial closures of lumber manufacturing operations.
Pay hikes would take place in the contract’s third and fourth year.
CONIFER represents employers such as: