VANCOUVER—Striking forestry workers on Vancouver Island are turning to a tactic that hasn’t been used in British Columbia in 10 years to make sure trees cut down for Western Forest Products won’t get to market.

A large local of the United Steelworkers is calling on other B.C. union members — particularly the 6,500-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) — to refuse to transport what they say are millions of raw logs felled on Vancouver Island.

It’s called a “hot edict,” and it raises the stakes in the almost two-week-old labour dispute between the company and its 2,600 workers.

The company says its “examining the legality” of the move.

It’s called a hot edict because striking employees traditionally tag company products — in this case raw logs and finished wood products — with those words to signal to other union members not to touch them when they’re on the job.

“We believe this carries quite a bit of weight,” said Stephen Hunt, District 3 director for the United Steelworkers. “This, we hope, will convince them that there’s more to lose if they don’t get back to the bargaining table.”

Forestry workers on Vancouver Island walked off the job on June 28 after negotiations between Western Forest Products and USW Local 1-1937 broke down. The union says the company, which posted a profit close to $70 million last year, is trying to cut pension plans and weaken benefits available to contract workers.

The company says it’s working to fill customer orders and has a “contingency plan” while workers are on strike. It declined to give details on the plan or its position at the bargaining table.

The BC Federation of Labour, the umbrella organization representing most unions in the province, issued the “hot edict” on Wednesday, asking its affiliates not to handle Western Forest Products logs during the strike.

It’s a rare move used to apply additional pressure on the employer when strikes involve products. The federation hasn’t issued such an order in 10 years.

In this case, longshore workers and other federated union members who interact with “hot” logs have instructions to leave them where they are.

In a telephone interview on Thursday, federation president Laird Cronk said they decided to issue the edict when the Steelworkers raised the idea and the federation’s board approved it.

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“It’s not something we take lightly,” Cronk said, “It’s used when it’s requested and it’s believed and expected that it will put pressure on the employer to get a collective agreement in place.”

Rob Ashton, Canadian president of ILWU, is not sure how many Western Forest logs its members handle, but under the rules of the edict, its 6,500 members — who handle all aspects of the shipping process — will be expected to leave the logs alone.

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