Strike threat looms in Canada timber talksVANCOUVER, June 16 (Reuters) - Loggers in coastal British Columbia have given their union authority to call a strike if negotiators fail to reach a new contract with the region's timber producers, union officials said on Friday.
The votes by workers in the southern interior region of Canada's largest lumber exporting province were still being tallied but they were also expected to support the measure, the Industrial, Wood and Allied Workers union (IWA) said.
A vote in favour of a strike authority mandate does not automatically mean there will be a work stoppage. But IWA has said it would show the extent of worker frustration over what the union views as unfair employer demands for contract concessions.
The union and employer bargaining associations, which represent individual companies in regional groups, are at odds over employer demands for contract flexibility, which the firms say is needed to offset the cost of wage and benefit increases.
British Columbia exported C$13.2 billion ($9.1 billion) in forest products in 1998, of which 63 percent went to the United States, 17 percent to Japan and 10 percent to Europe, according to the latest government statistics.
The almost 12,000 IWA members covered by the coastal region contract approved the strike mandate by 90 percent, the IWA said. The results of the vote by the 5,000 southern interior region were expected early next week.
The union has not yet asked for a strike-mandate vote in its talks with timber companies in northern British Columbia, or with Canfor Corp. (Toronto:CFP.TO - news), which negotiates separately from the other producers.
The IWA's contract with coastal timber producers has traditionally set the pattern for agreements in the other regions. The current coastal contract expired Thursday, while those in the rest of the province continue until the end of the month.
The IWA and coastal employers have not met since June 1, when the union authorised the mandate vote, but the coastal industry's top bargainer said he expects the union to return to the negotiating table once the results of the tally are known.
If the union negotiators authorise a strike it would be required to give the companies 72-hour notice. The IWA, which represents nearly 30,000 workers in British Columbia, last staged a major strike in the province in 1986.
Concern over how the union would use the mandate helped push Chicago Mercantile Exchange lumber futures higher on Friday, traders said.