535 



Senator Wirth. Do you get people from outside of Alaska be- 

 cause people are not available locally? 



Mr. RoppEL. Certain skills are not available. We have a very rig- 

 orous Alaska hire program, and I met two weeks ago with the Com- 

 mission of Labor on this very issue. 



Senator Wirth. Would you say, generally, that if there is anyone 

 from Sitka or from Southeast Alaska who wants a job, they will get 

 one? 



Mr. RoppEL. If they qualify. If they meet the requirements of the 

 work that needs to be done. 



Senator Wirth. And you have a contractual obligation with the 

 Forest Service to do that? 



Mr. RoppEL. No. 



Senator Wirth. To hire people from Aleiska? 



Mr. RoppEL. No. We have an obligation in the contract to do 

 what we can. That provision is in the contract. You know what it 

 is; you have read it. And we have always been found to be in com- 

 pliance with that issue. 



Senator Wirth. That is Section 12(K), that insofar £is it is practi- 

 cal to do so, labor for the conduct of logging operations of mills and 

 manufacturing plants conducted under this contract, the purchas- 

 er's affiliate, subsidiary, or subcontractor will be recruited from 

 residents of Southeast Alaska. That is that provision? 



Mr. RoppEL. That is the provision. 



Senator Wirth. I was struck by that, and some of the people I 

 was talking to yesterday, I asked where they were from. And a 

 number of them were contract people who were not from Alaska. 

 And, as you know, there is no reason why they cannot come out as 

 well. They are U.S. citizens and have a perfect right to express 

 themselves. 



One of the areas I was concerned about as well, all of the discus- 

 sions that have been made on the contract, in the legislation that I 

 have proposed, I suggest that we ought to terminate those long- 

 term contracts, as they do not exist in a forest anywhere else 

 around the country. The Federal Government can terminate these 

 contracts at any time, particularly if there is cause that the con- 

 tract has been — that the conditions of the contract have not been 

 met by the people on the other side. 



You said in your opening statement, "We have faithfully per- 

 formed our side of the contract." I have a variety of questions re- 

 lated to that. Information that was made available to all the mem- 

 bers of the committee said, "In recent years the long-term con- 

 tracts have been fraught with controversy. In 1981, Ketchikan Pulp 

 and Alaska Pulp were convicted of anti-trust violations, including 

 price fixing, collusive bidding, and forcing independent operators 

 out of business." Is that true? 



Mr. RoppEL. That statement is true. 



Senator Wirth. So, that was 



Mr. RopPEL. That was a civil action, that was not a criminal 

 action. 



Senator Wirth. I did not suggest it was a criminal action. I just 

 was wondering with regard to the contract being lived up to. 



Second, we have available to us from the Department of Environ- 

 mental Conservation an April 5 letter that was sent to George 



