EAR FALLS — Union officials representing sawmill workers at the Interfor facility in Ear Falls say employees are “caught in the crossfire” of ongoing “economic warfare” with the Trump administration.
Unifor represents the roughly 160 unionized workers at the sawmill in Ear Falls. Interfor, which owns the mill, confirmed on Oct. 17 that operations at the Northwestern Ontario facility are being “temporarily curtailed for an indefinite period.”
“These workers are, unfortunately, caught in the crossfire with an administration that’s declared war on Canada’s economy,” Stephen Boon, Unifor’s northern area director, told Newswatch in an interview, while calling on “all governments” to provide help for those laid off and all workers in the forestry sector.
“It’s, unfortunately, economic warfare.”
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a global 10 per cent tariff on all wood and lumber on Oct. 14, adding to the existing 35 per cent duties on Canadian softwood lumber.
Boon said he was in Ear Falls on Friday and he’s already spoken to company officials. Meetings are planned between the union and Interfor during the week of Oct. 20, he said, to “have further discussions on some of the details and logistics on exactly how this is going to work.”
“And then, hopefully, what measures can be taken to make it as short of a shutdown as possible.”
Svetlana Kayumova, Interfor’s vice president of corporate communications and government relations, said in an email that “the downtime is temporary and is evaluated on a week-to-week basis,” and that it is being caused by “ongoing market challenges.”
Interfor announced it is reducing its fourth-quarter lumber production companywide by 26 per cent over the second quarter, which the company said in a media release, “reflected a more normal operating stance.”
“We are still developing the operating schedule, and the duration will depend on market recovery,” Kayumova said. “We continue to monitor conditions closely and will adjust operations as needed.”
Boon said everyone won’t be laid off at the same time. Although lumber production in the sawmill ceased on Oct. 16, he said “there’s still, probably two or three weeks of lumber to be dried and planed.”
“It won’t be a total shutdown until probably another three or four weeks until they finish planing all the finished product.”
Boon said union-company discussions will focus on what happens after that.
“You’re obviously going to have to have a crew on-site to maintain the site, to do any work on-site,” he said. “A lot of that stuff we’re going to be sitting down over the coming week and getting some clarification on exactly how they’re going to transition into a curtailment phase.”
Boon said, at this point, not knowing how long the shutdown will last creates unease, calling it “a big blow to the members.”
“I think the uncertainty itself creates concern and it’s always unfortunate when you see people get layoff notices like this.”
