Weyerhaeuser waiting to hear whether truckers will strike

Officials at Weyerhaeuser said Friday that they had "heard rumblings" about a possible strike Monday among truckers at the company's plants in Craven and Washington counties.

People in the trucking industry have said the strike would probably involve independent drivers, who are not directly employed by Weyerhaeuser, according to Nancy Thompson, a spokeswoman for the company.

She said Weyerhaeuser has contracts with 16 companies for its timberlands operations in Eastern North Carolina, and some of those companies subcontract the transportation part of the work.

Weyerhaeuser operates a pulp-making plant in Vanceboro in Craven County and a pulp-and-paper mill in Plymouth in Washington County. The Vanceboro plant, which makes "fluff pulp"-the absorbent material used in diapers and baby wipes-employs between 500 and 600 people.

Buddy Shavender, the owner of Shavender Trucking in Pantego, is one of the regional haulers for Weyerhaeuser.

His lavender trucks make daily hauls along U.S. 17 to and from the plant in Vanceboro.

Shavender said his trucking company is not going to be part of the strike "unless my drivers surprise me on Monday." But he has heard that a strike would be related to what kinds of benefits are offered to subcontracted drivers.

"We got out of subcontracting for a lot of reasons," he said. "We've only got two subcontracted drivers now, and they've been with me for more than 30 years."

Thompson said Weyerhaeuser waited to hear from the truckers on Friday, but hadn't heard anything by the close of the business day.

"I've checked with our facilities managers and they haven't gotten lists of demands or anything like that," she said. "We don't have a clear idea as to what the strike is about and we probably won't unless we get some formal communication. They may be waiting until Monday - if a strike even happens then. We don't know how credible the possibility is."

A meeting of some Weyerhaeuser officials in Craven County is scheduled on Monday. But Thompson said it is not a board meeting and it was planned before the company heard rumors of a strike.

She said the company will follow its "usual safety procedures" on Monday, but there are no plans to have additional security at either the Vanceboro or Plymouth plant.