The union representing about 2,000 northern B.C. forestry workers has reached a tentative contract agreement with its employers.
Bob Matters, United Steelworkers wood council chairman, says the four-year agreement will give a general wage increase in the third and fourth years of the contract.
He says the agreement also enhances job security, improves health and welfare benefits and boosts contract language for closures of lumber manufacturing operations.
Full details of the tentative deal will be given to members when a series of ratification meetings starts in the next few weeks.
The agreement with CONIFER, or the Council on Northern Interior Forest Employment Relations, covers several employers including Abitibi-Bowater, Tolko Industries and West Fraser Timber.
If ratified, the contract would cover employees at more than a dozen operations.
