Lawmakers: Irving Woodlands using "blackmail"
Canadian logging company Irving Woodlands LLC is protesting a state law by halting logging work and threatening to lay off as many as 300 workers, moves that northern Maine legislators are calling "blackmail."
The New Brunswick logging company, a subsidiary of J.D. Irving Ltd., is opposing a state law that allows independent forest workers to enter into a collective bargaining agreement, arguing it hurts the company's competitiveness, according to the Bangor Daily News. The bill was enacted in 2004, but it has been suspended until it went into effect yesterday. In response, Irving stopped work on the more than 1 million acres it owns in northern Maine and laid off 80 workers. Irving officials say they will lay off as many as 300 more if the law is not repealed. "The global market is fiercely competitive and we must do everything we can to ensure a cost-effective wood supply," Mary Keith, vice president of communications, told the paper.
Sen. Troy Jackson (D-Allagash), a logger who co-sponsored the bill that created the law, told the paper he doubted the law would be repealed, as it has frequently been suspended in response to demands from Irving. "I am not going to operate from threats and from blackmail," he said. The law was enacted to prevent the state's largest landowners from creating monopolies, and protects workers' access to fair pay in a market deemed noncompetitive, Jackson told the Daily News.
In 2008, Irving Woodlands successfully got the law suspended for a year by threatening to close the Pinkham sawmill in Nashville Plantation and lay off 120 workers. The law was suspended, but the company moved the mill to Canada.
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