Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 23 August 2010 – Western Forest Products Inc. (TSX: WEF) is pleased to announce that a new four year labor contract with the United Steelworkers union has been ratified by a majority of union members. Approximately 2400 Western and contractor employees are covered under this contract, which will expire 15 June 2014.

“This is great news for our employees, customers, investors, and communities,” said Steve Frasher, president and CEO. “This is an important next step in our continuing efforts to recover from the worst market conditions the industry has experienced in a generation,” he said.

“Throughout these difficult last few years our employees and the United Steelworkers union have been strong partners as we have worked to improve margins, manage production and inventory, and find new market opportunities,” Frasher said. “Our last two profitable quarters reflect this successful joint effort.”

Western is an integrated Canadian forest products company and the largest coastal British Columbia woodland operator and lumber producer, with an annual available harvest of approximately 7.4 million cubic meters of timber of which approximately 7.1 million cubic meters is from Crown lands and lumber capacity in excess of 1.5 billion board feet from eight sawmills and four remanufacturing plants. Principal activities conducted by the company include timber harvesting, reforestation, sawmilling logs into lumber and wood chips, and value-added remanufacturing. Substantially all of Western’s operations, employees, and corporate facilities are located in the coastal region of British Columbia, and its products are sold in more than 25 countries worldwide.