Log truckers standoff continues

Some truckers are continuing to refuse to haul logs to Plum Creek Timber Co., and

Plum Creek is continuing to refuse to negotiate new terms for the truckers.

Some truckers are continuing to refuse to haul logs to Plum Creek Timber Co., and Plum Creek is continuing to refuse to negotiate new terms for the truckers.

Since June 6, independent truckers across Northwest Montana have cooperated in a "shutdown" against Plum Creek, the state's largest private landowner.

Participating truckers say they want better financial terms, particularly improved compensation for fluctuating fuel prices.

But the truckers do not work directly for Plum Creek; they work for loggers who contract with Plum Creek, with provisions for truckers worked into the contracts.

Company officials say they have boosted compensation for the truckers by 20 percent over the last two years. But those participating in the shutdown say that whatever has been provided, it falls short of what truckers need to continue operating.

The fact that Plum Creek and the truckers don't have a direct financial relationship has been a major obstacle to any resolution, said Kevin Jump, who owns 15 trucks, most of them log trucks that are shut down.

Jump said the shutdown will have an increasing effect on logging contractors and Plum Creek, though it's hard to determine the potential impact on the big timber company.

"We estimate that there are between 60 and 80 trucks that are parked and not hauling for Plum Creek," Jump said, adding that those trucks would normally each haul two loads a day to Plum Creek. That translates to 750,000 to 800,000 board feet of timber that is not being hauled to Plum Creek facilities in the Flathead each day, Jump said.

"It's a huge impact, especially when they are faced with low log inventories right now anyway," he said.

Plum Creek continues to get some log deliveries from private land, from contractors who own their own trucks and other sources, but it's not enough to sustain the company's Flathead facilities, Jump said.

Tom Rey, Plum Creek's northwest resources manager, said he anticipates an increase in log deliveries this week.

"Everything is running normal today and we expect, with dry weather, log deliveries will be gaining this week and we'll be able to run the mills at the normal pace," he said.

Plum Creek's position "has not changed," Rey said.

"We have contracts in place with the general logging contractors," he said. "We feel those are fair. We continue to take the position that we are … business partners and that we need to be fair, but we also need to be competitive."

Jump, on the other hand, predicts that Plum Creek's Evergreen plywood plant will have to curtail operations by the end of this week, and he heard that operations were curtailed over the weekend at the company's fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls.

Logging contractors are feeling the pinch, caught between Plum Creek and the truckers.

Jump and Joe Keller, another independent truck owner, said that at least two logging contractors offered Monday to provide a fuel adjustment to truckers out of their own pockets to resume operations and meet their contractual obligations to Plum Creek.

But the truckers had to politely refuse, because when the contracts expire in a matter of weeks or months, they would be back to the same terms they are now operating under.

One logging contractor reportedly bought three trucks over the weekend so he could get back to work. But buying a truck doesn't get it rolling with a load of logs, Jump said.

"Now he has to deal with the same issues that we have been dealing with for years," Jump said. "For starters, he has to find people who are willing to drive."

Jump and other truck owners say it's been increasingly difficult to keep drivers, who have been lured away by higher paying jobs in construction or other work.

"We've lost five drivers in the last month, and they are going into the construction industry," Jump said.

Keller and Jump say the shutdown will continue, with the exception of truckers who find work with other companies.

Some are working for Stoltze Lumber Co. in Columbia Falls, and some are working for more distant mills.

Jump said some truckers are considering going to work as far away as West

Yellowstone, where there is a helicopter logging operation that has not been able to find enough drivers to haul wood.

"They're willing to go that far for work until Plum Creek realizes that they have to come up with rates that are fair," he said. "If something doesn't happen in the next few days, that's what's going to happen."

Late last week, logging contractors went to Plum Creek officials with terms proposed by the truckers. It called for truckers to continue operating under current haul rates, but asked Plum Creek to resume a more favorable formula for fuel compensation that was last used five years ago, Jump said.

The proposal was rejected outright, Jump said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com