Potlatch workers support strike

Employees of Spokane-based Potlatch Corp.’s sawmill and No. 4 power boiler in Lewiston voted to strike Tuesday, but they won’t form picket lines until a last-ditch effort at negotiations takes place next week.

Union representatives will meet with a federal mediator and company officials to discuss their options, said Ron Teigen, district union representative of the Association of International Machinists and Aerospace Workers, AFL-CIO in Lewiston. “It will be business as usual until next Tuesday.”

Teigen declined to say how many people voted and what percentage of those who voted favored the strike. A minimum of 30 percent of the union members had to cast ballots and 67 percent of them had to vote for the strike for the measure to pass, Teigen said. “We had a very good turnout.”

Matt Van Vleet, Potlatch’s Lewiston spokesman, said little about the vote. “We’ve agreed to return to the table, and that will happen Tuesday,” Van Vleet said.

This is the first time the woodworkers have voted to strike since the early 1970s. That labor dispute ended when the two sides settled before midnight the night of the strike vote.

The union – which represents 225 workers in the Lewiston sawmill and the 40 employees who work on the No. 4 power boiler – has received no indication Potlatch’s position has changed since the company issued its final offer, Teigen said.

Potlatch and union members disagree on salaries and pension benefits.

Potlatch’s last offer would give employees lump sum bonuses equal to 2.5 percent of each employee’s salary for the next two years instead of raising the salaries by 2 percent.

The union is concerned because a lack of increases in base pay would decrease employee wages in the future and, according to the union, cost the employees thousands of dollars over their working lives. Base salaries would increase by 2.5 percent in the third year and 3 percent in the fourth year of the contract.

The company says it is seeking the lump-sum bonuses because it would make employees’ salaries more consistent with those of other Inland Northwest mills and help it stay competitive.

The company also proposes to raise monthly pension benefits from $40 to $45 per year of service, adding $1 in the first three years and $2 in the fourth year. The union wants $3 in the first year and $1 in the second and third years.

Potlatch’s stance is that its employees’ wages need to be more in line with those of other Inland Northwest mills.

But the pay increase sought by the unions of 2 percent annually is not enough to keep up with inflation, said Pete Ellsworth, a shift millwright on the No. 4 power boiler who has been at Potlatch for 43 years.The boiler produces steam that generates electricity that’s sold to Avista. Potlatch sells 52 megawatts it generates to Avista and then buys them back, along with about 50 more megawatts, to meet its energy needs. As of April, Potlatch was selling its electricity for $45 a megawatt hour to Avista and purchasing it from Avista for $34 a megawatt hour, according to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.

Potlatch’s quarterly reports indicate the entire wood products segment lost $19.4 million in the past three quarters because of sagging housing starts.

But Potlatch’s Lewiston mill is one of the biggest suppliers in the world of Western red cedar products, Ellsworth said. “That market is still good.”