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From: xcruz@webtv.net (Robert Chavez)
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1998 17:53:54 -0600 (MDT)
To: Labor-Rap@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: Loggers Protest at US-Canada Border (fwd)
OCTOBER 19, 1998 
                                                                Loggers
Protest at US-Canada Border 
                                                                FORT
KENT, Maine (AP) — Maine loggers upset with Canadians being hired for
state jobs protested Monday by blocking a border checkpoint with pickup
trucks. 
No violence or arrests were reported. Protesters parked 15 pickups in
the narrow road before dawn near the U.S. Customs gate across from St.
Pamphile, Quebec. 
About 30 Canadian woodsmen who tried to enter the country had to turn
back and use another border checkpoint about an hour away, said Public
Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland. 
Authorities were not attempting to clear the way because it is a private
road, McCausland said. 
``Americans are leaving the state to work and there are Canadians
working all around us,´´ said Bonita Hafford, wife of Hilton
Hafford, an Allagash logger who organized the protest. 
The state labor department dispatched investigators to meet with
protesters, said Alan Hinsey, director of the state's Bureau of Labor
Standards. 
Federal and state labor officials said Canadians have been given
permission to work in Maine because not enough Americans are applying
for the logging jobs. 
Over the past year, only 17 U.S. workers applied for 670 logging jobs in
Maine, said John Chavez, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor in
Boston. Fourteen were hired.