Union move towards safe and orderly shutdown of B.C. Coast forestry industry

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CP

By: CRAIG WONG

VANCOUVER (CP) - A strike by thousands of forestry workers represented by the United Steelworkers on the B.C. coast could last several weeks, analysts said Friday as dozens of forestry companies prepared to shut down operations this weekend.

With an industry already burdened with a strengthening loonie and a weak U.S. housing market, Kevin Mason of Equity Research Associates said the companies will be in no hurry to settle the dispute.

"Pricing is lousy and a bunch of them are losing money so actually shutting down for the summer is a good thing," Mason said.

"For the companies, there's no impetus to get back to bargaining on this. ... If you had a backdrop of a really strong industry that was going on right now, then there would be a little more incentive to get back to the table, but we're not in that situation."

Read more: http://www.680news.com/news/business/article.jsp?content=b072097A

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