Weyerhauser Strike Enters It’s 3rd Week. Show Your Solidarity!

Yesterday, Sept. 22nd, we made contact with Weyerhauser workers in Raymond and Longview Washington. On the picket lines we distributed close to 100 copies of The Workers Wildcat, with several workers offering to help further circulate the publication among others on the picket lines. The strike is headed into its third week. Workers told us that the company was so far showing no sign of budging; however, the workers continue to do their best to keep the picket lines occupied 24 hours a day for the foreseeable future.

As the strike continues on, workers expressed an increasingly grim outlook on the situation. Workers told us that the company was in no way “negotiating in good faith” and instead that the company itself may be entrenching for a bigger fight as it continues its assault against the workers. Despite this, many workers told us that they had no intention of giving up. Instead one said he intended to carry the strike forward to the “bitter end”, rather than seeing his quality of life “go backwards”.

The workers on the picket lines demonstrated an impressive level of class consciousness. In both cities, we talked to workers who named the capitalist system as the source of their troubles. Many workers had a clear understanding of the international nature of their fight. From the export orientation of the the company to the equipment they use on a daily basis which is made all over the world, this was almost a self-evident truth to the workers we talked to.

As the company focuses on exporting raw logs to foreign markets for production, most of its domestic market is focused on keeping Home Depots in California supplied as a secondary source of its profits. Workers explained that Weyerhauser has over the years sold off several of its sawmills to other companies, making it more difficult for workers to organize. Weyerhauser has increasingly focused on becoming a land management company that hires contract loggers. Given the companies increasing export orientation to foreign markets, they told us they wouldn’t be surprised if the company sold off its entire sawmill operations, someday soon. The realities of their situation drove workers to develop a deep understanding of the importance of solidarity among workers across the world. One worker explained that ultimately the fight of the working class was “going to have to be international”. The realities of production and the global division of labor make this essential today.

During the 1986 Weyerhauser strike between 6,000-7,000 workers hit the picket lines. Today Weyerhauser only employs approximately 1,200 workers in the Northwest. The smaller number of workers means that things such as maintaining picket lines become more difficult as there is a smaller pool of workers to pull from. This points to the necessity of focusing on organizing strategies beyond the narrow confines of trade-unionism. Instead workers must unite by building organizations that allow them to stand in solidarity across industries and national borders.

Workers told us that today a single sawmill can produce the same amount of product that 60 sawmills did half a century ago. Each sawmill processing between 120-160 truckloads of logs a day. While the average worker has become dozens of times more productive than those in the past, workers find their living conditions worse than that of half a century ago, while the companies profits are higher than ever before. The reality is plain to see, workers today are more exploited than ever before. All of the excess wealth made by workers thanks to technological development have instead been stolen by the capitalist class who invest it in destructive endeavors such as war mongering and vanity projects such as luxury space flights.

The reality is that capitalism is a sink or swim system based on survival of the fittest. The big fish eat the smaller fish until there is no more fish left to eat up, and then the whole system hits a brick wall. Despite the past two years of booming profits thanks to Covid-19 price jacking, overall the logging industry has been on a trend of a declining rate of profit. The lumber industry at large has consistently had to invest more of its money into more and more complicated technology to stay competitive, while reducing it’s workforce year after year. While new technology may make more profits for the company in the short term, in the long-term it spells disaster as labor is after all the only true source of profit in capitalism. Since companies must constantly be bringing in an ever increasing profit to keep share holders happy they are forced to turn to increased exploitation of workers as one of the few avenues left to keep their profits coming in.

Today the ruling class seeks to end the current inflation crisis by raising interest rates and “softening labor”. Since Covid-19 and the nation wide “labor-shortage” has given the edge to workers to organize across the globe, the ruling class hopes to raise interest rates, to slow down the economy, raise unemployment so as to make workers more desperate and willing to work for crumbs. High interest rates have led to a decline in the demand for housing construction as fewer people are willing to take out home loans. This has also led to a major crash in the price of lumber, meaning that lumber companies profits are falling again. To keep their profits streaming in they seek to ratchet up their exploitation of the workers. This is why they refuse to come to term with the strikers and why Weyerhauser workers must begin finding ways to unite and organize with workers across industries, trades and national boundaries to collaborate on ending this wretched system of profit once and for all.

More dissatisfaction with the union was heard on the picket lines as it was said that some Red Hats (new workers) would not be receiving checks from the strike fund. This led several workers to comment how they felt their union was in cahoots with the bosses themselves. Rather than helping push the strike forward, the union were in fact thwarting it. Many of the young workers have to make payments for “new trucks” and have little savings which is likely to put pressure on them to return to work. Workers in Raymond informed us that scabs had begun to enter the facility and that they had trouble manning the picket-lines, making it difficult to prevent scabs from keeping some elements of the operation running. Others mentioned the difficulty they had in keeping workers on the picket line in Coos Bay.

What is increasingly clear, is that for the struggle of our class to be successful anywhere, the struggle must be generalized across industries and sectors of workers, not just regionally or nationally, but internationally! Solidarity is the key to our success! Likewise workers must organize independent strike committees, free from the control of bureaucratic trade unions which only seek to contain the struggle by mediating between the bosses and workers. These strike committees could serve as bodies from which the strike can be coordinated and organized.

Ultimately we must confront this economic system based on profit, by seizing and reorganizing the means of production on the basis of common need, not profit. This economic system is worsening conditions for workers across the world as the capitalist class prepares itself for another world war. 

Weyerhauser workers are calling for more people on the ground, more awareness raising and solidarity! We call on workers all over the U.S. and all over the world to show your solidarity with striking Weyerhauser workers. Spread the word of the strike by organizing solidarity demonstrations, posting your support on social media, or boycotting Weyerhauser products.