No, the basis of his op-ed letter is fiction. I am one of those former forest product workers; I know my peers. Furthermore, like Motleycrew pointed out, Howanietz did humiliate himself in public by pawning deluded tripe MC destroyed with a simple fact.
 Now, about this mindless drivel the forest products industry is to blame for its own demise...In Reagan's first term liberals were as harsh on him as they are on Trump today. They mocked Reagan because he did what was available to him, and created temp jobs to address the critical unemployment problem...just like FDR did. In Oregon/Washington Reagan cashed in the timber commons to get us back to work. This was temporary till the economy turned around. The demise of this industry was when the economy turned around, and with it went these temporary jobs.