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Adelina Delao waves to oncoming traffic outside Weyerhaeuser's Gate 8 on Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Longview. At 12:01 a.m. Weyerhaeuser employees went on strike for better pay and benefits.
Rob Honey, right, directs Ron Carmona, sitting, how to fill out a slip to indicate when and where he will be picketing on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at the Woodworkers Local 536 Union headquarters on Oregon Way in Longview. Leo Sukeforth, behind, assists as well.
A man holds up a "On Strike" sign on Industrial Way on Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Longview. About 350 Longview employees are represented locally by the Woodworkers Local 536 union under the umbrella of the IAMAW (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Woodworkers).
Woodworkers line up at Weyerhaeuser's gate 14 during the first morning of the union's strike on Tuesday, Sept. 13 in Longview.
In a city built on the backs of lumber employees, unionized Weyerhaeuser woodworkers are striking for the first time in 36 years, saying Longview’s once family-focused company is now more concerned about money.
The city formed in the early 1920s around Long-Bell Lumber Company mills. But it is the Weyerhaeuser family that local workers today still talk fondly about, including George Weyerhaeuser Sr., the late fourth-generation heir of the timber company who worked in the field before taking the reins.
Dean Dryden, 61, of Kelso said he has worked for the company since 1979. Back then, the company held annual family picnics and provided livable wages; now, contract negotiations “have been deteriorating over the years,” with the last four-year company proposal offering a net loss after raises and medical costs, he said.
“Over the years, the company has went more from a family-oriented, community-oriented business to a stockholders-driven company,” he said. “The employees have basically turned into a number. That’s sort of the culture change over the years.”
Dryden was one of dozens of Woodworkers Local 536 Union workers outside Weyerhaeuser gates Tuesday in Longview, instead of manning their regular shifts inside, due to disagreements about what they say are low pay and benefits during the company’s self-described record-breaking earnings.
Weyerhaeuser truck driver Ben Collier holds a sign while heavy equipment operator Matt Crabb screws a poster to a handle on Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Longview.
Weyerhaeuser reported its “2021 financial performance was the strongest on record,” with a roughly 69% increase in net earnings from 2020 to 2021, according to a January press release.
Denise Merle, senior vice president and chief administration officer for Weyerhaeuser, said in a statement Tuesday afternoon contract negotiations will continue despite the work stoppage.
“We are prepared to continue discussions to produce a contract that is beneficial for employees and sustainable for the company across business cycles,” he said.
Brandon Bryant, the district business representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Woodworkers District Lodge W24, said the latest contract was voted down because general wage increases were too low; some vacation time was cut; employees were asked to pay for healthcare premiums for the first time since at least around the 1990s; and retirement benefits weren’t improved.
Under the umbrella of the IAMAW, about 350 Longview employees are represented locally by the Woodworkers Local 536 union. Employees in Aberdeen and Raymond in Washington and Coos Bay, Springfield and Cottage Grove in Oregon are also included in the IAMAW and all were picketing Tuesday, said Kelly Zinc, the local woodworkers union president.
The union voted to authorize a strike on Sept. 2, while the union’s last actual strike was in 1986.
Three groups of 10 to 20 workers each along Industrial Way, and three groups from three to about eight workers each near the Port of Longview were picketing outside gates on the first day of the union’s strike, with some starting at 12:01 a.m.
Bill Jones, 57, said he has worked in the Weyerhaeuser lumber shipping department in Longview for 28 years. Instead of clocking in for his usual 5 a.m. shift Tuesday, Jones stood on a concrete traffic island near the intersection of Industrial Way and Washington Way with roughly 20 fellow workers holding signs indicating they were on strike. One sign, held by a worker across the street, read “Make Weyerhaeuser great again.”
Weyerhaeuser employees Ben McKnight, right, holds a sign as Mark, who did not wish to give his last name, waves to a driver honking in support of the local woodworkers union strike on Tuesday, Sept. 13 near the Port of Longview.
Some sat in lawn chairs around 9 a.m., while Cookin’ Country blared from a nearby radio and passing drivers intermittently honked in support. The group had no plans to leave.
“We’re going to strike as long as it takes to bring this to a closure that benefits everybody,” Jones said.
He has two children in high school, and said Weyerhaeuser wages don’t match the rising cost of living or recent inflation.
“In the last 15 to 18 years, the wages just haven’t kept up and the medical just gets worse and worse,” Jones said. “It’s simple math.”
Bryant said the workers should be thanked for the company’s recent successes.
“Those profits don’t happen unless the work happens, and the work only happens if our members do it,” he said.
For more photos of the strike, turn to A3.
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Adelina Delao waves to oncoming traffic outside Weyerhaeuser's Gate 8 on Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Longview. At 12:01 a.m. Weyerhaeuser employees went on strike for better pay and benefits.
Weyerhaeuser truck driver Ben Collier holds a sign while heavy equipment operator Matt Crabb screws a poster to a handle on Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Longview.
Weyerhaeuser employees Ben McKnight, right, holds a sign as Mark, who did not wish to give his last name, waves to a driver honking in support of the local woodworkers union strike on Tuesday, Sept. 13 near the Port of Longview.
Rob Honey, right, directs Ron Carmona, sitting, how to fill out a slip to indicate when and where he will be picketing on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at the Woodworkers Local 536 Union headquarters on Oregon Way in Longview. Leo Sukeforth, behind, assists as well.
A man holds up a "On Strike" sign on Industrial Way on Tuesday, Sept. 13, in Longview. About 350 Longview employees are represented locally by the Woodworkers Local 536 union under the umbrella of the IAMAW (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Woodworkers).
Woodworkers line up at Weyerhaeuser's gate 14 during the first morning of the union's strike on Tuesday, Sept. 13 in Longview.
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