Forestry

TORONTO—Unifor, Canada’s forestry union, welcomes the federal government’s new measures to support Canada’s softwood lumber industry, including an emphasis on income supports for workers, product and market diversification, and a commitment to using Canadian lumber and wood products more effectively.

TORONTO—Unifor is calling on the federal government to negotiate a long-term agreement for softwood lumber exports to the United States that will avoid the rollercoaster of duties and threatened tariffs currently causing chaos in a sector that relies on long-term planning.

The Honourable Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario

Premier Ford,

Re: Supporting Ontario’s Forestry Sector and Communities

I am writing to respectfully request action from the Ontario government to support the province’s forestry sector, forestry workers, and the numerous forestry-dependent rural communities across Ontario.

Forestry workers from across Northern Ontario gathered in Dryden, Ontario to discuss opportunities for the sector, challenges in their workplaces, hear from legal and pension experts, and from Unifor leadership on how the union is fighting for forestry jobs.

Ontario Regional Director Samia Hashi and Quebec Director Daniel Cloutier opened the meeting with a review of the work the union is doing to push all levels of government for an industrial strategy for forestry, and to advocate using Canadian lumber and lumber products to help build us out of the housing crisis.

Quebec City — Unifor Québec condemns the announcement of plant closures and the termination Groupe Rémabec’s forest operations. The union is also questioning the motivations behind the employer’s radical decision that will severely impact workers in several regions of Quebec. Close to 1,400 workers could lose their jobs permanently, a real economic shock for several already fragile communities.

WINDSOR—With fists raised and voices roaring, thousands of Unifor members, labour leaders, and allies surged into Windsor’s Riverfront Festival Plaza on April 26 in a powerful show of defiance against U.S. President Donald Trump’s assault on Canadian jobs.

“This is the fight of our lives,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “They are not [Trump’s] jobs to take. They are Canadian jobs. They are Unifor jobs, and we are going to do whatever we have to do to defend them and protect them.”

ESPANOLA, Ont.—Unifor is repeating its call for all three levels of government to urgently develop an industrial plan for the forestry sector following the proposed sale of Domtar’s long-curtailed Espanola pulp and paper mill.

Unifor’s Forestry Council Executive Committee members met this week at the national office and were joined by National leadership to discuss the ongoing tariff threat to Canadian forestry, pulp and paper and lumber members. 

The seven members of the Forestry Executive, with representatives from across Canada, met in Toronto on March 25 to consider the latest developments in the ongoing trade war and the softwood lumber dispute, both of which represent existential threats to forestry workers and communities from coast-to-coast-to-coast.