By Bob Mackin | Prince George Citizen
West Fraser Mills was justified in firing a 100 Mile Lumber worker two years ago for uttering a death threat to co-workers, according to an arbitrator’s Jan. 2 decision under the Labour Relations Code.
Randall Noonan rejected the grievance by United Steelworkers Local 1-2017 on behalf of Clayton Kinder, who denied telling co-workers that he “could kill people in the sawmill.”
A new worker, Tristen Owen, testified at a hearing last September that he heard Kinder make the comment “clear as day” on Jan. 30, 2024 while they both worked in the planer area. Owen told his supervisor and was moved to a different area.
Noonan believed Owen’s testimony and found that Kinder never took responsibility, express remorse or suggest he was joking.
Noonan decided that, on the balance of probabilities, Kinder uttered the comment that led to his firing “and then was not truthful either in the employer’s investigation meetings or as a witness in the arbitration hearing.”
While it was unlikely that Kinder intended to put the words into action, Noonan called it a serious form of misconduct “made in the safety-sensitive environment of the lumber mill.” He said there was no reason to believe the behaviour would not be repeated and that the company’s dismissal of Kinder was not an excessive response.
Kinder had been suspended twice for failure to adhere to safety protocols: in 2021 for the remainder of a shift and in 2022 for the remainder of a shift plus one day. Neither incident involved statements in the workplace.
“However, in June 2022, there was an incident in which the grievor said to his supervisor words
to the effect of ‘how easy it would be to kill’ someone and had played what he described as his
‘new favourite song’ which was about suicide,” Noonan wrote.
West Fraser Mills chose not to discipline him that time, due to a known mental health condition. Instead, Kinder went on extended medical leave. When he returned to work, he signed an agreement to “ensure that his conduct and comments are appropriate, respectful and non-threatening.”
Last November, West Fraser Mills announced closure of the 100 Mile House lumber mill, due to B.C. softwood scarcity and U.S. duties and tariffs.
