August 30, 1992 48 pages

Yarrows’ NV shi

Office, Editorial 985-2131

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MIKE BROOKS, Maurice Benoit and Chris Larussen walk a picket line in front of CanadianOxy Industrial
Chemicals in North Vancouver. They are part of 107 members of loca! 697 of the Energy and Chemicals
Workers’ Union who walked off the job this week to back contract demands. A bargaining session was
scheduled between the two sides on Friday.

YARROWS LTD. Shipyards, formerly Versatile Pacific
Shipyards Inc., plans to close its North Vancouver yard
permanently on Sept. 30 and move its operations elsewhere
on the Lower Mainland, the president of the union repre-
senting Yarrows’ employees said Friday.

Marine Workers and _ Boiler-
makers’ [Industrial Union presi-
dent George MacPherson said
there are only about six people
left workifig at Yarrows and they
have been told by the company
that the North Vancouver yard
will close its gates, for good on

Sept. 30. Lo
But MacPherson said he was

By Surj Rattan
News Reporter

confident that Yarrows would
look for another Lower Mainland
location.

“That’s the final chapter of
Versatile in North Vancouver.

C208

pyard to close permanently, union boss says

“We believe they'll try and
open somewhere else in the Lower
Mainland, and we intend to track
them.

“T think that Shieldings (Yar-
rows’ Toronto-based parent com-
pany) feels the North Vancouver
shop is too expensive and that
they’H look for cheaper rent
somewhere else.”’

An industry source, who asked
not to be identified, told the News
on Friday that Yarrows plans to
move to Progressive Marine Ltd.
in New Westminster. But Pro-
gressive Marine’s telephone was
out of service on Friday.

Yarrows president Don
Nicholson could not be reached
for comment by press time Friday.

But in a July 1 News story,
Nicholson said Yarrows hopes to
negotiate a dea! with North Van-
couver City and the Vancouver
Port Corp. to keep the ailing
shipyard open at the foct of
Lonsdale Avenue.

“If we had it our way, the
Vancouver Port Corp. could do a
deal with the land company (Bank
of Nova Scotia) and allow this fa-
cility to continue as a heavy in-
dustrial fabricating facility to
support both the shipbuilding

repair business and other industri-
al customers around the Lower
Mainland,’’ Nicholson said at the
time.

He added that he had ‘‘very
positive feelings’? about the future
of Yarrows in North Vancouver
and said the company wants to
make continued use of the present
site.

Meanwhile, MacPherson said he
was unhappy with an announce-
ment this week by the federal and
provincial governments that $11.8
million will be made available to

See Union page 3