The Mayor of Port McNeill says a near eight month strike by Western Forest Product workers in her community reinforces the need to better diversify the economy across British Columbia.
A tentative deal was reached this week, hopefully putting an end to a strike for some 3000 workers who have been off since July 1st.
Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, Gabby Wickstrom says the community has really had a difficult time adjusting. “We did learn that we’re resilient and that we care for each other. That was brought to the forefront again and that is the positive. The other thing we learned is we are forestry dependent and I would like to move to being being forestry based. We need to diversify.”
Mayor Wickstrom says the community of about 2400 has had to band together to get through the difficult time. “We had businesses who laid off all their employees. The owner and one other employee is working. She just spoke to me the other day and had said she hadn’t paid herself in three months. They’re not serving food in the restaurant they’re only serving refreshments because propane is so expensive and food costs, if it’s wasted nobody is coming in to eat. Those kinds of things.”
“It was 3000 striking WFP workers, but 6000 contractors were also caught in the bite. As months progressed it slowly worked to other businesses as well. Those that weren’t union member and were making minimum wage, those I think were the hardest hit.”
Wickstrom says as a smaller community it needs to look at being less reliant on the forest industry, but it’s important not too dismiss it either.
Listen to the full interview below.
Photo via Twitter.