Tolko Severance Dispute

by Wayne Moore - Story: 24214 Nov. 21, 2006 Castanet
Employees at Kelowna's Tolko sawmill briefly walked off the job Tuesday. Workers are upset at what they feel is the company's lack of action in addressing the issue of severance for workers at the ill-fated plywood plant. Tolko recently announced it was shutting down the plywood plant, affecting 127 employees. Plywood plant employee, Andy Jopling, says employees just want some closure. "Guys would like to know what's going to happen ---even if they say we've put together a severance package and these are roughly the numbers. How do you plan your life around not knowing," says Jopling. A union letter circulated to employees indicated after six weeks of talks with the company, zero dollars have been put on the table for affected workers. The letter went on to say, "through their lack of action during negotiations and the unwillingness to address any commitment on severance, we have no other reasonable assumption than to believe there will be no severance for Kelowna Plywood employees." Jopling says during a full shutdown, employees are specified number of days severance for every year of service. He adds, since this is being called a partial shutdown, there is no wording in the contract for workers to receive severance. Jopling says the lack of any answers has had a real affect on morale. "Since they told us you're going to be layed off, the mill has continued to run --- we haven't had shutdowns. Morale is in the toilet right now and today we told the company we want some answers." The plywood mill, originally scheduled to shutdown January 5, 2007, will now close December 15 of this year.
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CHBC VIDEO
Employees at the Tolko plywood plant in Kelowna walked off the job Tuesday morning forcing the plant to temporarily shut down. Most of them will be laid off within the next month. Workers say they stopped work because of the company's reluctance to pay severance