On Tuesday September 13, 1,200 Weyerhauser workers walked off the job, shutting down production and forming picket lines across over half a dozen facilities between Oregon and Washington. Making Weyerhaeuser workers the latest section of the working class to join the international wave of workers militancy which has been growing over the past several years in response to the global capitalist crisis. We have hit the picket lines to get the story directly from the workers.
Weyerhaeuser is one of the largest wood product manufactuers in the US. In 2021, they reported $2.6 billion in earnings (Source). According to the company’s website they generated “total cash return to shareholders of more than $2 billion based on 2021 results,” & that last year they had a net increase in earnings of 69 percent, their strongest performance on record. According to workers we talked to in Longview, Weyerhauser produces most of the milled lumber sold at all of the Home Depots across California. The majority of unmilled logs are shipped to foreign markets where they can be processed into lumber at a cheaper rate.
Despite their recent booming profits, Weyerhauser is offering their workers wage cuts (when considered in relation to inflation), vacation time cuts, and forcing workers to pay health care premiums for the first time. Workers are also weary of divide and conquer strategies that use different benefit packages to pit old and new workers against each other (Source). While new hires receive vacation time, old workers find theirs stripped back. Meanwhile new hires no longer have pensions and instead are limited to 401k’s (Source). Workers we talked to were outraged by the companies bragging of huge profit margins while their families barely manage to make ends meet and working conditions in the facilities worsen.
This is the first strike by Weyerhaeuser workers since the seven week long strike in 1986 that resulted in wage and benefit cuts due to a sell out contract after one union accepted the company offer and split the strike (Source). Despite this bogus union contract, longtime workers have been showing up to the picket lines with signs from the 86 strike. Reminding workers that this is not the first time they have had to fight to defend their standard of living against the attacks of the owners. ( Source) However, workers feel there is still a lot to learn.
A third generation Weyerhaeuser worker we spoke with on the picket line, said “they have been developing this art of dealing with unions and workers for over 100 years. They have millions to spend on lawyers and strike breaking agencies. We are having to relearn all this stuff from scratch.”. One worker made it clear that the pressure to strike came from the rank and file while stating that “this strike should have happened months ago”. Several of the workers we talked to mentioned that they felt their union was not tough enough and was instead dampening the type of militant workers activity necessary to defend their standard of living.
The workers mentioned that despite much of the logs not being processed due to the stirke, many are instead sent by Weyerhaeuser to competing saw mills which then sell the logs under the Weyerhaeuser name. This helps keep Home Depots stocked to an extent and undercuts the pressures on the owners to come to terms with workers to end the strike. While we were at the site many of the entrances to the facility were still accessible by management. The workers we talked to mentioned how free access to the facility undercut the strike as the company was still able to operate by selling raw logs internationally; however, one worker told us that once the lumber stocks deplete in California “they will want to talk”.
A key feature of the strike is the solidarity of the longshoremen who refuse to cross a picket line and thus refuse to load lumber coming out of Weyerhaeuser facilities onto ships for export. So as long as the Weyerhaeuser workers are on strike, the processed lumber rots, sitting outside the sawmills. One ship we were told that was loaded with nearly 3 million dollars in lumber was unable to leave due to the solidarity of the longshoremen. As we visited in Longview we saw nurses join the picket line as they told us of their upcoming strike, and workers discussed the possibility of other sawmills in town going on strike as well. In addition to the solidarity of the longshoremen, nearly every single car that drove by the picket line in Longview gave solidarity honks and waves. And many have stopped by to share food and supplies. A feeling of a whole town of workers in revolt emerged as longshoremen frequented the picket line, discussing their solidarity with the lumber workers.
In response to the strike, workers reported being locked out of the facility and unable to access their employee online portal where they access their benefits, or use unused paid time off and vacation time. One worker reported that, while older workers who had more saved could last longer on strike, younger workers would likely buckle in a few weeks as a result of not being able to materially support themselves.
Despite its shortcomings one worker told us that this was just the first strike, and it was necessary “to prove that it was possible”. He expected much more action in the future. It was clear that much of the activity of the workers was self organized, from managing the picketline rotations, to the agitation that made the strike happen in the first place. To avoid another sell out contract like what happened in the 1986 strike, we encourage Weyerhaeuser workers to create their own independent strike committees and to articulate their own specific demands that can ensure no sell out contract is pushed on them by union bureucrats who use their resources to convince workers to come to terms with the boss.
We also call on workers across the world to show the Weyerhaeuser workers your solidarity and support. We call on workers of the world to boycott Weyerhaeuser products wherever they are found. We encourage painters to refuse to paint buildings made with Weyerhaeuser wood and Carpenters to refuse to work on job sites where Weyerhaeuser products have been used. We encourage sawmill workers in Asia to refuse production of Weyerhaeuser timber. We call on workerrs from all over the region to join Weyerhaeuser workers on the picket lines and demonstrate your solidarity.
