Weyerhaeuser

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Weyerhaeuser Company Limited
Type	Public (NYSE: WY, TSX: WYL)
Founded	1900
Headquarters	Federal Way, Washington
Key people	Steven R. Rogel (CEO, Chairman) Richard E. Hanson (COO)
Industry	pulp and paper
Revenue	▲ $22.629 billion USD (2005)[1]
Operating income	▲ $1.359 billion USD (2005)
Net income	▲ $0.733 billion USD (2005)
Employees	49,900 (2006)
Website	www.weyerhaeuser.com

Weyerhaeuser is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world; the world's largest private owner of softwood timberland; and the second largest owner in the United States, behind International Paper. Weyerhaeuser has approximately 41,000 employees in 18 countries, including United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Mexico, Ireland, France, and Uruguay.

[edit] History

In January 1900, Friedrich Weyerhäuser founded the company as Weyerhaeuser Timber Company with 15 partners and 900,000 acres (3,600 km²) of Washington timberland ^[2] purchased from James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway. ^[3] In 1929, the company built what was then the world's largest sawmill in Longview, Washington. Weyerhaeuser's pulp mill in Longview, which began production in 1931, sustained the company financially during the Great Depression. In 1959, the company eliminated the word "Timber" from its name to better reflect its operations. In 1965, Weyerhaeuser built its first bleached kraft pulp mill in Canada. Weyerhaeuser implemented its High Yield Forestry Plan in 1967 which drew upon 30 years of forestry research and field experience. It called for the planting of seedlings within one year of a harvest, soil fertilization, thinning, rehabilitation of brushlands, and, eventually, genetic improvement of trees.

Weyerhaeuser consolidated its core businesses in the late 1990s and ended its services in mortgage banking, personal care products, financial services, and information systems consulting. Weyerhaeuser also expanded into South America, Australia, and Asia. In 1999, Weyerhaeuser purchased MacMillan Bloedel Limited, a large Canadian forestry company. Then in 2002 after a protracted hostile buyout, the company acquired Willamette Industries, Inc. of Portland, Oregon.^[4] On August 23, 2006, Weyerhaeuser announced a merge with Domtar's fine paper business in a $3.3 billion cash and stock deal.

[edit] Operations

Weyerhaeuser imports timber products from Malaysia, Chile, and Brazil, and has timber operations or offices in 44 American states, Canada, and 18 other countries. Weyerhaeuser is one of North America's largest distributors of wood products; it owns more than seven million acres (28,000 km²) of land in the U.S., and holds logging rights to more than 35 million acres (142,000 km²) of land in Canada. Weyerhaeuser has expanded beyond its roots in lumber and wood products; it controls more than 100 subsidiaries in fields such as construction, real estate sales, and development.

The company's operations are divided into five major business segments:

• Timberlands — Growing and harvesting trees in renewable cycles.
• Wood Products — Manufacturing and distribution of building materials for homes and other structures.
• Pulp and Paper — Produces a variety of papers and the pulp used to produce papers, absorbent products, photographic film, and several others.
• Containerboard Packaging and Recycling — Produces paper, boxes, and bags to move products from factories to the household. The segment collects and recycles wastepaper, boxes, and newsprint to make new products.
• Real Estate — Builds homes and develops land. Weyerhaeuser has six subsidiaries collectively called Weyerhaeuser Real Estate Company or WRECO, the largest of which is Pardee Homes.

The company also operates an IT internship program to develop professionals for employment in its IT department.

The company sponsors the Weyerhauser Au Sable River Canoe Marathon, which runs 120 miles (193 km) from Grayling to Oscoda, Michigan. It is one of three marathon races that constitute canoe racing's Triple Crown. The race is always held the last full weekend in July during the Grayling's annual Milltown Festival.

[edit] North Carolina TOSA Program

Weyerhaeuser also offers teachers the opportunity to experience life outside their classrooms during their summer breaks. The North Carolina TOSA Program, Teachers on Summer Assignment, offers a variety of internships to teachers, featuring such activities as forestry research, assisting in the pine nurseries, and reptile/amphibian tracking (to name a few). This six-week paid program provides teachers with insight on the business and its principles of sustainable pine farming and encourages the teachers to develop curricula for use in their classrooms that are not only aligned with the standard courses of study, but also Weyerhaeuser's lessons.

[edit] Corporate governance

The Weyerhaeuser board of directors consists of: Richard Haskayne, Robert Herbold, Martha Rivers Ingram, John W. Kieckhefer, Arnold Langbo, Don Mazankowski, Nicole Piasecki, Steven Rogel, Richard Sinkfield, D. Michael Steuert, James Sullivan, and Charles Williamson.

[edit] Environmental record

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified Weyerhaeuser as the 42nd-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 17 million pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air.^[5] Major pollutants indicated by the study include formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, acetaldehyde, manganese compounds, and chlorine dioxide. ^[6] The Environmental Protection Agency has named it a potentially responsible party for at least 18 Superfund toxic waste sites.^[7]

[edit] Criticism

[edit] Employee Firearms Policy

On October 1, 2002, the company sent detection dogs into the parking lot of their Valliant, Oklahoma paper mill plant looking for drugs in vehicles in response to an employee drug overdose. They found no drugs, but the dogs alerted on 12 cars with guns in them.^[8] Some of the employees were provided by sub-contractors, including Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) and Kenny Industrials.^[9] The company then asked the employees if they would open their vehicles for a hand search, two of them refused, of the remaining 10 vehicles rifles, shotguns, and handguns were found.^[8][9]

All three companies, Weyerhaeuser, KBR, and Kenny, "prohibited the possession of firearms by employees, including in parking lots used by employees." In addition, "KBR also maintains various bulletin boards throughout the Weyco mill and has posted specific "no weapons" literature on those bulletin boards. Further, '[a]ll KBR employees working at the Valliant Mill have completed a computer safety module which states that no weapons are permitted on the Mill site'."^[9]

On November 14, 2002, the vehicles in the parking lot were searched for a second time. All employees were warned that if contraband, either drugs or firearms, were found a second time, they would be terminated. 12 employees were found with contraband and were immediately suspended.^[9]

KBR ultimately determined to terminate their contractors: Steve Bastible, John Bryan, Douglas Rowan, Donald Payne, Larry Mullens and Scott Darden. Kenny Industrials terminated Ryan Lewis. And, Weyerhaeuser terminated Jimmie Wyatt, a shift supervisor of 23 years, with an exemplary record. An additional four employees were terminated, but because these individuals did not file suit against the company, their names remain unpublished. Jimmy 'Red' Wyatt and all the others said that they were never told of the policy change, extending the company gun ban to the parking lot, which had occurred in 2002.^[9]

The plant manager, Randy Nebel, said that firing the men was difficult but he felt safer with all the guns out of the parking lot. Nebel stated that all the employees had been warned of the policy change.^[8]

Several of the fired men, the plaintiffs (appellants), filed a civil suit against Weyerhaeuser (a defendant or appellee) for wrongful termination in Oklahoma state court, Bastible, Steve vs. Weyehaeuser Co. & Unknown Entities (Case No. CJ-02-00601),^[10] Wyatt, Jimmie M. vs. Weyehaeuser Company (Case No. CJ-02-00604),^[10] Lewis, Ryan vs. Weyehaeuser Company (Case No. CJ-02-00638).^[10] In the appeal to Federal court the cases were consolidated and Tulsa attorney Lawrence A. G. "Larry" Johnson (with Belva Barber) represented them. Mr. Johnson, a longtime Second Amendment lawyer, said that this was an injustice that must be addressed.^[8] Attorneys Robert Dowlut, of Fairfax, Virginia, also filed an Amicus Curiae brief for the National Rifle Association of America on behalf of the plaintiffs (appellants; Bastible, et al).^[9][11]

The appellants stated that they were wrongfully discharged because, among other things, they were exercising their constitutional right to bear arms.^[9]

The plaintiffs (appellants), Steve Bastible, John Bryan, Douglas Rowan, Donald Payne, Larry Mullens and Scott Darden (case No. 05-7037), Jimmie Wyatt (case No. 05-7038), and Ryan Lewis (case No. 05-7039) lost in lower court and appealed to the United States Court of Appeals.^[9]

From the United States court of appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruling (Weyco is the Weyerhaeuser Company):^[9]

KBR's policy "prohibits bringing onto Company property, including Company-owned or leased parking areas, any firearms, whether properly licensed or not." Appellants' App. at 70. It also "prohibits an employee from taking onto Customer property, including Customer-owned or leased parking areas,[firearms.]" Id. at 70-71.

Weyco's company policy provides the following: "the possession or carrying of firearms or other weapons, explicitly or concealed, by anyone within the work environment . . ., including vehicles on company property, is STRICTLY PROHIBITED." Id. at 62. "Work environment" explicitly encompasses "adjacent parking areas." Id. at 63. Weyco's "contractor safety requirements" for the mill provide that "possession of firearms . . . by any contractor employee subjects the contractor to potential termination of [the] contract and immediate removal from the site." Id. at 72-73. They further state that "[n]o firearms are allowed on the mill site including parking lots." Id. at 73.

No party directs us to any place in the record where there is a copy of Kenny Industrials' policy on firearms. However, no one disputes the fact that Kenny Industrials employees who work at the mill, like KBR employees who work there, must comply with Weyco's policies, set out above.

The court of appeals upheld the lower courts decision that the employees violated the company (s) policies.^[9]

In addition, on April 13, 2006, Wyatt has filed a separate, breach of contract case against the company, Wyatt, Jimmie M. vs. Weyehaeuser Company (Case No. CJ-06-00212).^[10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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• Weyerhaeuser (official website)
• Dryden Pulp & Paper Workers suffer from brain damage
• Greenwashing Weyerhaeuser - www.CathedralGrove.se