ABSTRACT
Since the forest products industry is a labor-intensive that should be considered important in terms of occupational accidents and diseases. In the forest products industry sector, there is a high potential for the emergence of negativities in terms of occupational health and safety due to the working environment's mechanical, physical, and environmental factors. It will be possible to prevent occupational accidents and diseases by taking the necessary precautions for occupational health and safety in working environments. This study is aimed to examine the factors affecting risk-taking behavior from the perspective of blue-collar (employee) and white-collar (manager) workers in forest products industry sectors operating in the TR42 Level 2 region. For this purpose, 148 different enterprises with 10 or more employees for the forest products industry in the study region and 10835 employees with the number of employees in these enterprises consisted of the universe of the study. Due to the pandemic (Covid-19) process in 2020, 687 participants from a total of 64 different businesses, 36 and 28 of them from furniture and wood & cork products businesses, respectively, were reached through face-to-face interviews. Questionnaires were used as a data collection tool in the study. As a result, white-collar workers think that blue-collar workers tend to take more risks, more importance is given to security-related issues within the enterprise, and working conditions are better within the enterprise. This study will provide guiding information to understand the factors affecting the risk-taking behavior of both white-collar and blue-collar workers.
ABSTRACT
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global economic activity in all sectors, including forest industries. Changes in demand for forest products in North America over the course of the pandemic have affected both primary processors and downstream industries reliant on residues, including wood pellet producers. Wood pellets have become an internationally traded good, mostly as a substitute for coal in electricity generation, with a significant proportion of the global supply coming from Canadian producers. To determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian wood pellet industry, economic and market data were evaluated, in parallel with a survey of Canadian manufacturers on their experiences during the first three waves of the pandemic (March 2020 to September 2021). Overall, the impact of the pandemic on the Canadian wood pellet industry was relatively small, as prices, exports, and production remained stable. Survey respondents noted some negative impacts, mostly in the first months of the pandemic, but the quick recovery of lumber production helped to reduce the impact on wood pellet producers and ensured a stable feedstock supply. The pandemic did exacerbate certain pre-existing issues, such as access to transportation services and labour availability, which were still a concern for the industry at the end of the third wave in Canada. These results suggest that the Canadian wood pellet industry was resilient to disruptions caused by the pandemic and was able to manage the negative effects it faced. This is likely because of the integrated nature of the forest sector, the industry's reliance on long-term supply contracts, and feedstock flexibility, in addition to producers and end-users both being providers of essential services.
ABSTRACT
This article presents compliance courses made by the International Wood Products Association (IWPA) for the Lacey Act and other laws affecting the wood-products industry. The training encourages importers to work closely with suppliers to ensure they have access to the information needed to understand the rules and conduct robust due diligence. The course was crafted in the hope that it would help develop an industry-wide class of wood trade compliance professionals. The initial compliance and due-diligence course in 2016 was extremely well-received, it led to a series of more advanced courses, comprising, "Advanced Wood Trade Compliance", "Audits for the Wood Trade Professional", "Wood Products Supply Chain Mapping Basics", and "Formaldehyde Emissions Regulations for the Wood Trade Professional". IWPA has conducted briefings and training for suppliers worldwide, partnering with organizations, such as the International Tropical Timber Technical Association, the Global Timber Forum, the Malaysia Timber Council, and several Chinese industry associations. The global COVID-19 pandemic has led IWPA to re-examine how stakeholders access its wood-trade compliance training courses. In the due-diligence space, travel restrictions are requiring that wood-product importers re-evaluate their due-diligence procedures to ensure they continue to meet the requirements of the Lacey Act and other relevant laws and regulations. IWPA will continue to update its courses to reflect the new reality. In particular, and for the first time, it will offer courses virtually and via IWPA's e-learning platform in the second half of 2020.
ABSTRACT
Forest products and timber harvesting businesses were severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article describes how forest products companies used Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to keep over 487,000 workers in the forest industry on payroll through the pandemic. This article also summarizes the Pandemic Assistance for Timber Harvesters and Haulers (PATHH) program, payments provided to timber harvesting and hauling businesses that experienced losses in revenue in 2020. Timber harvesting and hauling companies that received a PATHH payment reported US$1.27 trillion in total revenue lost between 2019 and 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 Forest Products Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This article presents the effect of COVID-19 on the labor market in the forestry industry of Russia. The demand dynamics of the labor market 2 years before COVID-19 was decreasing, which then deteriorated sharply as the pandemic came. Because of this, the regional structure of the labor market and the level of competition for decreasing vacancies but increasing job applications were affected as well. The salary in the industry rose, although the trend is primarily associated with decreasing demand for line personnel and inherently low level of income for specialists. As for the labor demand in specialists, among the five most demanded in the industry include managers and heads of production, engineers, technologists, designers, and foremen, with vacancies also offered to joiners and carpenters, mechanics. locksmiths, assemblers, fitters, and CNC machine operators. Lastly, the general portraits of job candidates were presented. Majority of candidates are men, with specialists aged 26-35 and 36-45 prevailing, and those under 22 show the least interest in the industry. Approximately 60% of candidates graduated from university, 20% from colleges, and 13% with secondary education, with the majority having over 6 years of work experience. Salary expectations of candidates were distributed as follows: 40,000-60,000 rubles - 28%, 30,000-40,000 rubles - 20%, 60,000-80,000 rubles - 17%.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of a survey conducted during the coronavirus outbreak to the leading companies in the industry and participants of the XXII European Fastmarkets/RISI conference about the current level of economic development, expectations and priorities in the timber industry / pulp and paper industry, and digitalization trends.
ABSTRACT
In the present paper the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on Turkish forest products industry was investigated with the help of qualitative research methods. Focus groups and interview methods were adopted as the methodology. The scope of the study is limited to wood-based panel, laminate flooring and furniture industries which are the leading branches within forest products industry of Turkey. The respondents are white-collar workers randomly chosen from engineers, managers or marketing directors of large-sized enterprises from Ankara and Bursa. The enterprises were limited with mentioned cities due to these cities are of great importance for the industry in management and marketing activities. Results showed that COVID-19 pandemic affected the labour force and income negatively. The key finding of this work is that if the pandemic lasts longer the substantial economic side effects will be inevitable. Also, the results suggest that at first the companies should focus on raw material supply and secondly to domestic market rather than the international market.