Roughly 60 layoffs are on their way at Aspen Planers as the lumber mill continues to feel the effects of a container truck drivers’ strike at Port Metro Vancouver.

Starting Monday, Aspen Planers will temporarily lay off those employees at their site two location along Houston Street to cope with the effects of that strike.

Aspen Planers president Surinder Ghog told the Herald the mill at site one will continue to operate.

Next week, the company will stop dressing wood at site two, and if the strike continues, further action will likely be taken in about two to three weeks’ time, Ghog said.

“If this port dispute continues – all of our export shipments are now being curtailed – we’re going to have to start shifting our primary manufacturing to products that we’re able to move,” he said.

Ghog said the company will have to focus more on products that can go to the U.S. market instead.

“If this strike doesn’t let up, then it’ll affect more of our operations on a temporary basis.

“There has to be some sort of resolution to this issue of transportation into the port,” Ghog said.

Ghog said the company has canvassed alternative options to solve their shipping issue, but said there are problems with transport by boat and railway, including winter weather.

Once the issue at Port Metro Vancouver is resolved, Aspen Planers will call laid-off employees back to work, Ghog said.

The work stoppage is expected to cost Aspen Planers over $200,000 per week.

Ghog said Aspen Planers has not lost any contracts as a result of the strike, but that’s a possibility. On average, 24 trucks of lumber per day leave Aspen Planers, he said.

The strike has hindered Aspen Planers from shipping to customers, resulting in about a two-week delay.

Goods stuck as government, truckers at odds

About 1,000 non-unionized, owner-operator truckers with the United Truckers Association (UTA) went on strike last month and 400 unionized members of Unifor-Vancouver Container Truckers’ Association joined them on March 10.

On March 11, Port Metro Vancouver was granted a continuation and expansion on its injunction to keep protesting truckers off port property.

Security personnel have been placed in active trucks wanting to access the port.

The strike is blocking transportation in and out of the port’s four terminals that sees an estimated $885 million worth of cargo per week.

Half the containers that arrive at Port Metro arrive via railway, the other half via truck.

Port Metro Vancouver, the federal government and provincial government have agreed on an action plan to end the strike.

The 14-point plan includes a 10 per cent adjustment to trip rates within one month. Hourly wages and fuel surcharge rates will also be assessed and the results of said assessment implemented by mid-2015.

Terminals would also have to pay a $25 fee to truckers who have to wait more than two hours to load their containers.

Port Metro Vancouver will have a consultation period with trucking industry stakeholders on restructuring the trucking licensing system to create a more stable industry. Changes from that consultation would be implemented by June 15.

Once normal operations resume, Port Metro Vancouver will rescind suspended licenses that are not related to criminal activity and will commit to terminating legal actions not related to criminal activity once the injunction expires.

Representatives for the unionized and non-unionized truckers have said they want a negotiated settlement.

“We’re prepared to negotiate around the clock to end this dispute,” Unifor’s B.C. area director Gavin McGarrigle said in a statement issued Sunday.

After meeting with representatives from Port Metro Vancouver, the provincial government and federal government representatives of the truckers say their concerns regarding minimum rates for truckers haven’t been addressed.

The truckers are asking for better pay while waiting at the port, a reduction in wait times and standardized pay rates to prevent undercutting.

Minister of Transportation Todd Stone has said 90,000 people have jobs that depend on the port — 60,000 of which are in B.C.

Stone said he’s encouraging the truckers and federally regulated port to get back to the bargaining table.