Archived Story

Union backing mill workers supports Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership
By ROY HOUSEMAN

For more than 40 years, Hellgate Local 885 has represented, and continues to represent, the workers of the Smurfit-Stone Missoula mill. The union’s relations with the company have varied through the years from cooperation to the threat of strikes. Yet, for all the arguments over the years with Smurfit-Stone, some things the union and the company must work together on. A prime example of this is the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership.

The Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership, which includes groups ranging from extractive industries like Smurfit-Stone to the conservation-minded National Wildlife Federation, has put together proposed legislation on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. This legislation would not only help retain high-paying jobs in Montana through sustainable timber harvest on 2.2 million acres of timber land, but also create new jobs from the restoration and reclamation work done in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest. The restoration work will lead to better fishing opportunities in the future and more opportunity to see unfettered wildlife in a new wilderness area. While no plan is perfect, the union’s belief is that the partnership will lead to less finger-pointing and lawsuits, and more handshakes and stewardships in a healthy forest.

United Steelworkers Hellgate Local 885 not only supports this legislation because it would directly affect our jobs, but because it creates movement in many fields related to our national forests. The union sees the critical state that our national forests are in and how the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership is a way to navigate the crisis in the national forests. One example of this crisis is the fact that the U.S. Forest Service estimates that nearly 90,000 acres of Douglas fir trees in Montana were infested with Douglas fir beetles last year alone. While there are a lot of culprits in the beetle’s expansion, inaction shouldn’t be one of them.

Additionally, our local watched with keen eyes the closure of the Stimson mill in Bonner. A good union shop is no more because of the cost of timber and the lack of timber available off of national forest lands. With this closure, an intimidating fact becomes apparent: The very infrastructure that can maintain healthy forests in Montana is in jeopardy.

Without a basic timber infrastructure, Montanans risk a lot more than good-paying work. Homes within the wildlife-urban interface face the risk of fire n preventable fires, which release tons of CO2 into the air, creating even more concern for global warming. The Beaverhead-Deerlodge legislation will by no means resolve all the Forest Service’s problems, or global warming for that matter, but it is a start in the right direction.

Our local will not stand idly by hoping for a remedy. United Steelworkers Hellgate Local 885 supports the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Partnership and the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Conservation, Restoration and Stewardship Act. We look forward to participating more in this partnership and know the voice of labor will build a better coalition.

Finally, we encourage others to learn more by visiting www.b-dpartnership.org.

Roy Houseman Jr. is president of United Steelworkers Local 885 and works at Smurfit-Stone.
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