FORT FRANCES—Union workers at the local Abitibi-Consolidated mill on Tuesday voted in favour of an agreement to give the company some long-term labour stability in exchange for a guarantee it would build and operate a new bio-mass boiler here.
“All four locals ratified the contract extension. The company’s already ratified it. We have a green light now for the construction of a bio-mass boiler in Fort Frances,” Communications, Energy and Paperworkers national rep Rene Lindquist said Wednesday morning.
“The agreement extends the unions’ normal agreement with the company, which expires April 30, 2009,” noted Lindquist.
“This new agreement will pick up from that date, and whatever the Abitibi Eastern Canada pattern settlement is, that will be extended automatically to the Fort William division,” he added, explaining this means the local unions’ contracts won’t have to be renegotiated in 2009.
“We don’t know what the length [of the extension] is. We anticipate it would be a five-year deal but it lines up with the pension plan,” continued Lindquist.
“Whatever the next settlement is is an automatic for the Fort Frances people, so there’s labour stability here for a good number of years.”
But Lindquist stressed the agreement was conditional on a bio-mass boiler project being initiated here.
“We wouldn’t vote on it until we reached a tentative agreement,” he explained. “Then the company had to bring it back to the board of directors and get approval.
“Then we voted on it, and it’s a go.”
Members of the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Locals 306 and 92, the International Association of Machinists Local 771, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1744 voted on the agreement Tuesday at the old CN station here.
Lindquist said he couldn’t release the results on behalf of all the locals, but did say the agreement was “ratified by a fairly decent margin.”
“We’re very satisfied with the ratification,” he remarked.
Lindquist said the agreement includes some stipulations, such as “early retirement acceleration,” but not what he would define as concessions.
He called the ratification of the agreement “very good news.”
“Considering what’s going on in the forest industry, I’m proud to say all four unions and labour organizations took a step forward in doing something different and creating something different here to provide for stability for the future,” he said.
“The locals in Fort Frances, including ours and the IAM and the IBEW, deserve a lot of credit for facing a very difficult situation and putting themselves in a position to see major investment by Abitibi—one that’s sorely needed for the future of that mill and one that’s pretty rare,” CEP Ontario vice-president Cecil Makowski said Wednesday morning.
“You don’t see a lot of significant investments in pulp and paper facilities these days in Ontario,” he added. “They deserve a lot of credit for working co-operatively with the company to secure the future of that operation in Fort Frances.
“It’s absolutely a good news story,” stressed Makowski. “The folks in Fort Frances, beyond our folks that work in the mill there, the business people and the people in supply and service for that facility that derive their income from that, even the teachers, doctors, and nurses in the area, should all be sighing a of relief that the local unions have demonstrated the creativity and the initiative to find a solution to secure the future of the operation.”
Makowski said the type of agreement ratified Tuesday is not unheard of, but is “relatively infrequent in its application, particularly with the ‘me too’ provision which will see them receive the same benefits and wage increases that will be accorded to the rest of the Abitibi group in the next round of bargaining in 2009.”
Mill manager John Harrison said Wednesday morning that Tuesday’s vote has set the unions and company on a “path to a partnership.”
“”This is an important step forward for us and brings us closer to a successful pitch to the board of directors on this project,” he remarked. “We still have a few other issues to clear off—environmental permitting, bio-mass supply, boiler selection, etc.—but today we are a lot closer to getting the boiler than ever before.
“This agreement sets us up with a contract extension without risk of strike or lockout due to labour dispute,” added Harrison. “It also sets us on a path to a partnership that will deliver on the full potential of the Fort Frances Division as a leader within ACI—for safety, environmental, customer satisfaction, productivity and financial performance.”
Harrison noted the next step is to get the board of directors to approve the project. “We don’t anticipate that happening before March,” he said.
As previously reported, the proposed bio-mass generator (also referred to as a “hog fuel” boiler) uses renewable cost-effective fuel (wood waste) to generate steam and electricity to the mill—resulting in significant cost-savings and consequently boosting the long-term viability of the mill.
The bio-mass generator would not replace the current co-gen plant, but supplement its power generation.
Fort Frances Times
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