Irving loggers stay out of woods

PORTAGE LAKE – Fifty-four loggers representing as many as 43 logging and trucking contractors were surprised Monday that Irving officials thought they could be back at work as early as Monday.

They weren’t – and the loggers and truckers said they wouldn’t be on the job today either.

Several crews working for Irving’s Maine Woodlands operations found other jobs over the weekend and were not at Monday’s continuing meeting of loggers and truckers. The workers have been meeting daily since Jan. 5 at a local motel; today marks the ninth day of the walkout.

The loggers were further frustrated with state officials Monday after hearing that Gov. John Baldacci had met over the weekend with James Irving, CEO of the Irving conglomerate.

They feared the meeting was designed to seal their fate with government officials, and rumors about the meeting flowed freely.

“The governor and several of us are only playing a role to keep people talking,” Department of Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan said Monday afternoon. “There are no secret deals with Irving, and the governor was only in on the Friday meeting for a couple of minutes.

“Loggers have told us from the start they don’t want us brokering a deal for them,” he said. “We have no legal role in these negotiations.”

In the meantime, two investigators from the Maine Attorney General’s Office were in northern Aroostook County on Monday. The investigators wouldn’t reveal what they were investigating, but they talked with loggers.

Chuck Dow, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office, said when asked what investigators were looking into, “We can’t say if they are involved in an investigation, if they are.”

Irving woodlands supply wood fiber, both chips and logs, to about 30 mills, some of their own and others from Fort Kent to Waterville.

The conflict began earlier this month when the workers, who formed the International Loggers Association on Dec. 26, walked off the job, seeking 25 to 30 percent increases in logging and trucking rates and surcharge payments when diesel fuel costs rise above $1.45 per gallon.

Irving offered a 10 percent increase in logging rates, a 12 percent increase in off-highway trucking rates and a 7 percent increase for highway trucking rates. The company also offered a fuel surcharge payment when diesel fuel reaches $1.55 per gallon.

The company changed the offer this weekend, offering an additional 2 percent for every category if workers agreed to participate in an efficiency-productivity program.

The truckers had refused to sign a new contract offered by Irving after their old one expired on Dec. 31. Loggers who usually negotiate new contracts in the spring, stopped work in solidarity with the truckers.

Over the weekend, an Irving official said he expected the contractors to be back at work Monday for either the company or other landowners in the area.

“We are still talking with our people who are not operating, [either] one on one or in small groups,” Chuck Gadzik, operations manager for J.D. Irving’s Maine Woodlands, said Monday afternoon. “We are hearing some concerns and questions to our newest offer.

“There is an indication that more will join those who are operating this week, and others will soon leave to work elsewhere,” he said. “Our numbers [in the woods] have grown a bit over last week.”

Last week, an Irving official said the company had 27 logging contractors and 40 to 50 trucking contractors before the work stoppage occurred in the Maine woods, for a total of at least 67 contracts.

On Monday, at least 46 of those weren’t on Irving woodlands, according to a count taken at the meeting at the motel.

After four contractors met Monday afternoon with Irving officials at Portage Lake, Dean Plourde, the loggers’ spokesman, said there was nothing new to the company’s latest offer.

Sen. John L. Martin, D-Eagle Lake, who has been monitoring the situation, said Monday by telephone that he didn’t think the meeting in Augusta between Baldacci and Irving was a bad thing for the workers.

“Remember that Irving had not changed its stance until meeting with the governor,” Martin said. “He [James Irving] has increased his offer since the meeting.”

Edward Kelly, an Allagash logger at the Portage Lake meeting Monday morning, made his position clear.

“Articles in the paper have been false from the start because I, we, have never been on strike,” Kelly said. “I stopped working to see if I can have a voice. I am not on strike.

“I stopped working indefinitely,” he said. “We all know Irving’s response. They are trying to force us to work anyway.”

He said he knew that 100 percent solidarity would not happen; it never does. Kelly instead urged fellow loggers and truckers to find jobs elsewhere.

“If not,” he said, “you will go back to work where you were under the same circumstances you were in before.”