BC At Work, Episode 10, Video

[00:00:27.19] – Scott

Hi, I’m Scott Swanson.

 

[00:00:29.11] – Judy

And I’m Judy Pal.

 

[00:00:30.07] – Scott

And this is BC at Work.

 

[00:00:34.15] – Narrator

This week, Judy goes sidewinding and Scott takes us behind the scenes of BC’s logging industry. BC at Work, the inside story showcasing the unions, working people and the companies that employ them. This week, from the studios of BC at Work, here’s Scott and Judy.

 

[00:01:04.20] – Scott

Good evening and welcome to the show.

 

[00:01:06.13] – Judy

Well, Scott, it looks like the rain finally caught up to us.

 

[00:01:08.23] – Scott

It did indeed, Judy, and that’s why we’re coming to you this week from our studio. In all fairness, I have to say that we have had excellent weather up until this point.

 

[00:01:16.01] – Judy

We sure have.

 

[00:01:16.23] – Scott

But if you live in the Lower Mainland, eventually it does rain.

 

[00:01:19.22] – Judy

It is unfortunate though, because all of our stories tonight are about the outdoors.

 

[00:01:23.15] – Scott

Judy did want to do the first item right here in the studio, but—

 

[00:01:26.04] – Judy

But unfortunately, the dozer boat just wouldn’t fit through the front door. They had me driving the Malibu race cars in Vernon, and then I was driving the 250-ton ore mover when we were at Fording. And all along I’ve been driving Scott crazy, but now I get to drive the Sidewinder dozer boat.

 

[00:01:45.19] – Al Dickey

Well, West Coast Manly is one of the older shipyards in Vancouver. It used to be down in False Creek, right down by Granville Island. Used to just build wooden barges and repairs and so on. And along about 1966, they got into building boomboats and sidewinders, we were actually pioneers in it. And since then we’ve built over 1,000 of these little boats and they’re working all over the coast, mostly in BC, but in Alaska and Washington and Oregon, and some in the Orient and some in Eastern Canada. Originally the logs used to get towed down to the sawmills on the Fraser River and they would come all different species, all mixed up, big ones, little ones, cedar, fir, whatever, and they would have to deal with them in the sawmill. So you might have a little wee log come up, then a great big log, and it was quite a problem for them. So they decided, why don’t we try to sort these logs in the water before they get to the mill? And they used to do that by hand with men with pike poles, and it was backbreaking, gruelling work, and slow.

 

[00:02:49.09] – Al Dickey

Somebody then decided, well, let’s get a boat or something to help. And they started out with a little steel bathtub with an outboard motor in the middle that used to turn around with a gas tank on it, and the guy would stand on that. And we did that for a few years, and then one or two people decided it’s time to get an inboard proper little tugboat. We called it a dozer boat, and West Coast was a pioneer in that as well. We got a mechanical drive and an inboard diesel engine, and this is what has evolved, these little sidewinders, we call them because they are 360-degree propeller rotation. They will go full power in any direction, and they handle individual logs or booms, and they’ve taken all the hard work out of the sorting. It’s solid steel with, with extra heavy knives and teeth for grabbing and pushing of the logs. And it’s unsinkable in the way that it won’t tip over. You can’t tip it over. The centre of gravity is too low. The engines are way down at the bottom. The cooling’s way down at the bottom. The propellers are way down there.

 

[00:03:58.02] – Al Dickey

Everything’s low, below the waterline. Well, that little boat there is 5 tons, 10,000 pounds. And the reason it floats is because it displaces a little more than 5,000 pounds of water in its bulk and size. What we have now is what we call CAD/CAM, computer-assisted lofting and drawing and designing. And we have a department here where we have men working and who can take a concept, put it into the computer, digitize it, come out with drawings, and also then produce digitized tapes. The tapes are then taken to the burning table where the man puts the tape in the machine, sets the steel plates down on the table, starts up the machine, and it’ll automatically burn out precisely time and time again whatever shape or size that you had picked.

 

[00:04:56.09] – Judy

West Coast Manly Shipyard manufactures not only boom boats and sidewinders for the logging industry, but have also built vessels for the Department of Fisheries, an icebreaker for the Niagara Power Authority, as well as four ship docking tugs exported for use in Lima, Peru. The shipyard also built the now famous submarines at West Edmonton Mall and a 6,000-horsepower deep-sea tug. West Coast Manly is Canada’s largest manufacturer of boomboats, employing roughly 180 people who are members of the Marine Workers and Boilermakers Union Local 1. Nearly 800 vessels have been supplied to the industry by West Coast Manly, some exported as far away as Malaysia and Panama. West Coast Manly Shipyard has established a reputation for quality work, building, and repairing of their vessels. Everything is tested and retested before it leaves the shipyard.

 

[00:05:48.06] – Al Dickey

Then finally it’s brought down to the water here and we put them in and run them through their paces.

 

[00:05:56.19] – Judy

I decided I would try out the latest addition to the Manly fleet. It seemed to work like a charm. I found my calling!

 

[00:06:08.13] – Speaker 2

Go get the log! Bring it in here!

 

[00:06:12.16] – Speaker 2

Push it in here!

 

[00:06:14.01] – Judy

Forget co-hosting a TV show, I’m going to become a dozer boat driver.

 

[00:06:28.14] – Speaker 4

That’s a good question. I think I would be a banker. I like working with money and it’s, you know, at least If it’s not all yours, you know, you got it in your hands.

 

[00:06:38.25] – Judy

Gee, Scott, you did a really great job with the lights.

 

[00:06:40.24] – Scott

Oh, thank you, Judy. You don’t think it’s a little too much on me?

 

[00:06:43.17] – Judy

No, no, not at all.

 

[00:06:46.22] – Scott

Okay.

 

[00:06:47.16] – Speaker 3

Send an ambulance! It’s my dad!

 

[00:06:51.27] – Speaker 3

I think he’s had a heart attack!

 

[00:06:53.20] – Speaker 5

Listen carefully and I’ll tell you how to do CPR.

 

[00:06:55.21] – Speaker 5

With the heel of your hand—

 

[00:06:57.02] – Speaker 3

I think he’s having a heart attack!

 

[00:06:57.25] – Speaker 6

No breathing, no pulse.

 

[00:06:58.18] – Speaker 3

I just got home and when I came in he was lying on the floor.

 

[00:07:02.26] – Speaker 7

Give 0.5 of epinephrine.

 

[00:07:06.13] – Narrator

Saving lives is only one of the jobs your ambulance paramedics do for you.

 

[00:07:10.03] – Speaker 6

I’ve got a pulse here.

 

[00:07:12.06] – Speaker 3

It’s okay, Dad, you’re gonna be okay.

 

[00:07:16.12] – Narrator

You’ve got the best.

 

[00:07:17.25] – Narrator

Accept nothing less.

 

[00:07:20.17] – Narrator

Lucy knows everything has to be right because we want our visitors to return.

 

[00:07:26.01] – Lucy Moncada

Our work is important to all British Columbians.

 

[00:07:29.04] – Narrator

Nick Warhaug, President of Local 40, the Hotel and Restaurant Workers. 10,000 men and women who make BC a great place to visit and a wonderful place to live.

 

[00:07:39.10] – Rick Heseltine

We would like to make a good impression on our guests, and we are proud of the high standards of excellence we have set.

 

[00:07:44.19] – Nick Worhaug

Local 40, we serve the need of our members and the province.

 

[00:07:48.05] – Nick Worhaug

We make the good times better in BC.

 

[00:07:54.04] – Speaker 7

The next Prime Minister has to take real action on childcare.

 

[00:07:58.14] – Speaker 8

The next Prime Minister must stand up for equal pay for work of equal value.

 

[00:08:02.07] – Speaker 9

And care that women get equal treatment on the job.

 

[00:08:05.12] – Speaker 10

Women my age want pensions that will let us live with dignity and security. The next Prime Minister must understand that.

 

[00:08:12.05] – Speaker 7

I’m voting for Ed Broadbent.

 

[00:08:14.04] – Speaker 8

Ed!

 

[00:08:15.04] – Speaker 9

Ed Broadbent.

 

[00:08:16.00] – Speaker 10

Ed Broadbent. There’s no other choice.

 

[00:08:21.23] – Judy

Scott, what are you doing?

 

[00:08:23.10] – Scott

I’m adjusting my light.

 

[00:08:25.11] – Judy

It looks as though working in the studio isn’t going to be as easy as I thought.

 

[00:08:29.04] – Scott

Judy, this is going to take a while. Let’s go to Clay Perry.

 

[00:08:47.05] – Clay Perry

Ernie Dalskog joined hundreds and hundreds of other people on a protest of unemployment on the Powell Street grounds in Vancouver in 1935. The RCMP and the Vancouver City Police were instructed to break up the demonstration, and they did so with vigour. Ernie was a wiry, well-conditioned young logger, so he was able to break free and escape down the lane. He thought he’d made it to freedom, came around the corner onto the street, and was confronted by a burly policeman who commenced to thrash him with his large truncheon. Ernie had taken the usual precaution of stuffing his felt hat with newspapers, but that was not adequate. He said that he just began to feel his knees buckle under him when he saw out of the corner of his eye a middle-aged woman coming around the corner, and she, outraged at the policeman’s behaviour, began to wail on him with her umbrella. And so Ernie was able to escape the grip of the policemen down the lane to freedom, forever grateful for her spirited defence of the right of peaceful assembly. And that’s Perry’s Log Book.

 

[00:10:18.14] – Narrator

For decades, members of the building trades unions have been building British Columbia, building the mines and mills and dams which have provided our economic base. Building the roads and bridges which have linked our communities together. Building our major public buildings and hotels and shopping centres and housing. For decades too, the organized construction industry has won respect across the continent for its capability, for quality construction, on time, and on budget. The key to the excellent reputation enjoyed by BC’s building trades unions is the high level of skills developed and maintained by the apprenticeship, training, and upgrading programs, which are financed and operated jointly by building trades unions and union contractors. BC is dependent on the training programs in the union sector of the industry because there is very little in the way of apprenticeships in the non-union sector. This school, operated by the Piping Trades Apprenticeship Board, will help to meet our need for skilled construction workers for years to come.

 

[00:11:30.05] – Speaker 11

This apprenticeship programme is a really good opportunity for me and my fellow classmates to learn the skills we need for a successful and secure future. And by the union and the union contractors putting on this excellent school, they’re not only investing in BC’s future, but our future as well.

 

[00:11:47.05] – Narrator

Construction has always been one of our most hazardous industries. Over the years, many construction workers have died and thousands have been injured in the process of building our bridges, dams, and major structures. Today, as a result of collective bargaining, employers and unions jointly operate the BC Construction Industry Health and Safety Council. Working toward a safer industry, while the Construction Industry Rehabilitation Plan assists anyone in the industry who experiences alcohol or drug abuse problems. But we don’t stop there. The pension funds which will provide for our members’ futures are helping to build British Columbia today. Housing, shopping centres, office towers, even major hotels are being financed by building trades unions’ pension funds,and this investment is growing in partnership with pension funds of other BC unions.

 

[00:12:40.09] – Len Werden

Our unions, our members, and the organized construction industry in British Columbia have a lot to be proud of, and we’re constantly working to improve. We’ve eliminated jurisdictional work stoppages in the organized sector through the establishment of our unique jurisdictional assignment plan. Recently signed three-year collective agreements ensure a continued high productivity, efficiency, and quality construction for British Columbians, with decent wages and conditions for our members.

 

[00:13:11.05] – Len Werden

The bottom line is, we can build it better.

 

[00:13:14.20] – Speaker 12

I would be delighted to earn 10 times as much as I am doing the same amount of work, but that’s okay, I guess. It’s the same for everybody.

 

[00:13:24.09] – Scott

Judy, are you sure there’s not too much light on me?

 

[00:13:26.08] – Judy

Well, come to think of it, maybe there is.

 

[00:13:29.17] – Judy

Now that we’ve got that fixed, we’ll take a break.

 

[00:13:36.21] – Narrator

No matter where it is, a business needs dependable communications in order to do business, and that’s where the BC Tel Group comes in.

 

[00:13:44.02] – Narrator

At this remote logging camp, new answers had to be found to the problems of operating a busy mini-community, of keeping people in touch.

 

[00:13:51.11] – Speaker 12

We need something we can really depend on.

 

[00:13:53.05] – Narrator

BC Tel’s answer was SpaceTel, an innovative answer to a tough business problem.

 

[00:13:58.07] – Narrator

But coming up with those answers is our business.

 

[00:14:01.09] – Speaker 7

Glad to hear it.

 

[00:14:01.26] – Narrator

BC Tel.

 

[00:14:03.10] – Narrator

Quality.

 

[00:14:04.11] – Narrator

We make it a way of life.

 

[00:15:00.28] – Scott

Hi, I’m Scott Swanson. Welcome to the rainforests of British Columbia, where trees can grow to this size in only 55 years. I guess you could call our story a tale of two trees, and here they are. This is tree number one. And here is tree number two. They’re both BC fir, and as you can see, they look pretty much alike. They call these beauties second-growth because the first time this area was logged was 55 years ago. Of course, these trees haven’t always looked like this, 55 years ago, they looked like this. A reminder that this tiny seedling with time, will grow into a magnificent tree like this. Twenty-four years ago, after it was logged, the area around Cameron Lake resembled this.

 

[00:16:00.24] – Speaker

Put a tree in? Sometimes you find slash.

 

[00:16:03.24] – Scott

Uh-huh. Productive forest land, like productive farmland, can be harvested replanted, and harvested again if proper forest management techniques are applied.

 

[00:16:14.15] – Speaker

Tree in the hole so it’s straight, tamp it in on both sides, step on it, and move on.

 

[00:16:28.10] – Scott

The next step is to get our two trees started on their journey. This part of the operation is the responsibility of loggers who are members of the IWA Local 1-85. Working at the Cameron Lake operation of MacMillan Bloedel. After falling, the trees will have to be trimmed and bucked, making them ready for yarding to a collection point. Before leaving the immediate logging area, our two trees will generate relatively few hours of employment for those involved in the work of falling, yarding, loading, driving, and dumping. Ironically, this is due in no small part to the professionalism and efficiency of these IWA loggers, who really know their stuff when it comes to moving timber. After yarding and loading on trucks, our logs continue their journey. Up until this point, both our logs have received the same treatment, and both have ended up here in the pond or saltchuck. This is where we’ll separate log number one from log number two. We’ll come back to log number one later. We’re at MacMillan Bloedel Chemainus Sawmill where log number two, or one very similar to it, after having been debarked, is going up the jack ladder to begin the milling process.

 

[00:18:39.24] – Scott

Our log number two and many thousands like it processed through this modern high-tech mill are helping to maintain the jobs and livelihood of 138 members of the IWA Local 1-80 who work here. These mill jobs pay wages that stay in the community in the form of rent, food, and mortgages. They contribute in a major way to the economic well-being of this and other communities. As this renewable natural resource is being shaped and squared, sawn, trimmed, and edged, it is performing a vital part in an economic cycle that encompasses logging, jobs, the environment, and exports. The mill jobs that prepare this product for market are generating wages which will go towards the purchase of goods imported into Canada, paid for in part by what we export. What you’ve just seen is value being added to our number two log. It and many more like it have ended up here or at a plywood plant. And each step in the milling or other manufacturing process has enhanced its value and made a direct contribution to the economy of our province. In 1978, the combined logging and wood industries employed over 74,000 British Columbians. In 1985, according to Statistics Canada, it had fallen to slightly over 59,000, a loss of 15,000 jobs.

 

[00:20:45.09] – Scott

Over 20 percent of the jobs that existed in the forest industry in 1978 had disappeared. This is a big part of the problem, the export of whole logs. You were wondering what happened to log number one? It ended up being loaded on board a ship just like this one. Leaving very little behind in the form of process-generated employment. The BC Ministry of Forests tells us that in 1987 we exported over 3.3 million cubic metres of whole logs from BC, a modern-day record. A recent study shows that about 4.5 hours of direct employment results from the harvesting, hauling, and shiploading of each log. Now, take a look at what would have been the employment benefit if all those logs had gone through a value-added process like log number two. Over 13 and 3/4 hours of direct employment from each log, generated by the processing of our own natural resources by our own people.

 

[00:21:44.14] – Jack Munro

Hi, I’m Jack Munro. I’m sure that I speak for most British Columbians when I say that we live in one of the most beautiful spots in the world. I know I speak for IWA members when I say we want to keep it that way. For the past few minutes, we’ve been watching logging, jobs, the protection of the environment, the manufacturing of our raw materials, how they can exist together. The only problem is this nonsense. Every time we ship one of these unprocessed logs out of the harbour, we have only generated 4.5 hours of employment. Compare that with over 13.75 hours of employment that British Columbians benefit from when we mill and process that very same log here at home. It doesn’t take a financial genius to see that every log we ship out costs BC about nine hours of work, and we don’t think that’s right. We need to keep those jobs and wages in British Columbia. I believe we all lose when we see those logs sailing out of the harbour unprocessed. The IWA’s commitment is to saving our environment and protecting our jobs. I believe this can be done. I believe this must be done.

 

[00:23:00.27] – Jack Munro

Working together to build a strong economy, maintaining our beautiful province of British Columbia at the same time.

 

[00:23:09.25] – Speaker

I work in the Civic Theatres. I work box office and I work as an usher, and it’s really nice to get paid to see shows.

 

[00:23:17.08] – Scott

Judy, I think it’s a little too much on you now.

 

[00:23:19.16] – Judy

You’re right, Scott. To be fair—

 

[00:23:20.25] – Scott

Why’d you do that?

 

[00:23:23.17] – Speaker 2

I’ve got friends in high places. We’ll be right back. No, no, Scott, like this.

 

[00:23:33.19] – Speaker

I invented the telephone so that folks could talk to each other inexpensively. So far, Canadians have resisted corporate attempts to dismantle our phone system. But now, with Mulroney’s trade deal, it’s happening again. This trade deal could double your home phone bill. It’s already happened in the States, and we could be the next unless you call this number now.

 

[00:23:57.05] – Speaker

When it’s your phone, there’s nothing free about free trade.

 

[00:24:03.04] – Ken Georgetti

When there’s an earthquake or a hurricane, the world rushes to help the victims, but at the same time, we ignore the victims of tragedies which we have the power to prevent.

 

[00:24:11.09] – Martin Sheen

Such a tragedy is the pesticide poisoning of thousands of California farm workers and their families. Every year, the growers dump millions of pounds of pesticides on the table grape vineyards.

 

[00:24:20.25] – Martin Sheen

These are toxic poisons which cause illness and death.

 

[00:24:23.27] – Ken Georgetti

But this is one tragedy which we can prevent.

 

[00:24:26.23] – Martin Sheen

Please don’t buy California table grapes.

 

[00:24:33.02] – Narrator

All across our province, members of the United Food and Commercial Workers serve British Columbians. In supermarkets, drugstores, fruit and vegetable packing houses, lumber stores, warehouses, meatpacking plants, and other jobs, the 17,000 UFCW members work to ensure that consumers get the best service possible. In turn, the UFCW members spend their wages in the community, helping to improve the economic and social well-being of British Columbia. United Food and Commercial Workers— helping to make British Columbia better for all of us.

 

[00:25:14.04] – Judy

Here’s Charlie Farquharson.

 

[00:25:27.09] – Charlie Farquharson

Hi, I’m Charlie Farquharson.

 

[00:25:28.12] – Charlie Farquharson

The wife and former sweetheart, Velita Drain Farquharson— she was a Drain on her father’s side— is my full-time co-opulative partner after 35 years of holy acrimony. And let me tell you, Velita’s not one of your women’s librium. If anything, she’s women’s retrogressive preservative. She still thinks your woman’s place is well hung over your kitchen stove. And when it comes to your divisions in labour, she’s in charge of the house, including your chicken house. And me, I’m responsive to your barn and other outbuildings. And Velita don’t hold with all this equality with the men neither. Thinks it’ll be a terrible step down for all her sex. Velita says a woman who wants to be like a man lacks drive. But when it comes to your equal pay for your works of equal value, what they calls your pay equitity, that’s when Velita walks into the men’s room and stands up for her rights. According to her statistics, 85 percents of men earns more than women on the same blamed job. And Velita says if I try to question her figure, then I’m nothing but a show business male prick. The wife of former sweetheart claims women has a lot more experience than us men when it comes to labour.

 

[00:26:40.20] – Charlie Farquharson

And according to Velita, us men has been on top for far too long. Lord knows I couldn’t run the farm without her. If Velita wasn’t keeping the books, I’d be in the hole quicker than I could dig one of them skeptical tanks. And when the wife says there ought to be a law over your pay equitities, by Swincher, maybe she’s right. She also says give a man an inch and he gets to think he’s a ruler.

 

[00:27:08.03] – Scott

Well, that’s it for this week’s show.

 

[00:27:09.24] – Judy

You know, Scott, it’s not half bad working in a studio because at least we can control the weather.

 

[00:27:13.25] – Scott

And the lights.

 

[00:27:17.15] – Judy

Almost.

 

[00:27:18.22] – Judy

Uh, good night.

 

[00:27:20.16] – Scott

Good night. Your friends upstairs?

 

[00:27:23.14] – Judy

Well, not all perfect.

 

[00:27:25.07] – Scott

At least the sound is under control.

 

[00:27:27.01] – Judy

Yeah.

 

[00:27:30.26] – Judy

Uh-oh.

 

[00:27:31.18] – Narrator

The producers of BC at Work would like to thank the following companies for supplying goods and services. Our show hosts travel BC in the luxury of a 28-foot motorhome provided by Okanagan Manufacturers. The crew vehicle for the show is a 1988 Chevy S-10 Blazer, compliments of Westminster Auto Leasing. Our fuel expenses throughout BC have been provided by the Petro-Canada dealers and agents. Our energy is Canada. While on the road, the cast and crew of BC at Work stay at Coast Hotels, the choice of the frequent traveler. Everyone on the show comes from BC. We can stay in touch no matter where we are in the province thanks to Autotel and cellular equipment compliments of Cellular Express and BC Cellular. Aerial footage made available through the services of Vancouver Helicopters. This week, BC at Work has been made possible in part by contributions from Labour Canada, CUPE BC, CU&C Health Services Society, and the Health Sciences Association of British Columbia.