Duane Hicks
Fewer mill employees will be going back to work once paper production resumes at the Resolute Forest Products mill here early next month.
“We’ve been told by the company that when they restart, that we’ll lose probably 16 percent of our membership—roughly 45 jobs won’t be recalled,” Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada Ontario vice-president Kim Ginter confirmed this morning.
“If some people retire, that will be less,” he noted. “Other unions are affected differently—by the same means but maybe the percentage is different.
“We’re not negotiating concessions or anything,” Ginter stressed.
“The company is just saying, ‘Lookit, we’re going to call back less people.’”
Ginter said CEP is going to ensure the company does everything as per the contract. If it does not, CEP will have a chance to object through the process of arbitration.
“If they do it in a manner that is consistent with the way the contract is, we have a reduction in the workforce,” he explained.
“What we won’t do is give concessions to lessen that
impact.
“There is a collective agreement in place, it’s a pattern collective agreement and our people have stuck to it and the company realizes that,” added Ginter.
“What the company needs to do is to reduce its workforce,” he said.
“It tells us to be competitive in a global market and competitive to their other mills because Fort Frances is a higher-cost mill than some others.”
Ginter reiterated that CEP will have to wait and see to know what its next step may be.
“We’ve been told roughly that the numbers are 45,” he said. “But until we actually see names and the numbers and see how that comes down, we’ve got to ensure it doesn’t violate our recall rights and our seniority provisions.
“If it doesn’t, we live with lesser numbers.”
Ginter said CEP went through the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act process with the company and negotiated a deal to help it during its restructuring, which included some reductions.
There also have been reductions ongoing at other Resolute mills to help the company get into a position where it can compete effectively in the global market.
“We’re not happy about that,” Ginter stressed. “We wished we could have done everything during the CCAA and come home and had a grace period to be able to get through what we did to help the company.
“But, of course, we know what the market is and everything.
“So, they’ve come back for some more and what we’re not prepared to do is negotiate concessions,” he remarked.
“‘There’s our contract. You do now what you have to do.’
“Our main objective was to protect the pensions of pensioners and the accumulated pension that the workers had, and we were successful doing that during the CCAA process,” Ginter said.
As previously reported, the kraft mill is scheduled to start up tomorrow (Jan. 28), while one paper machine is set to start up the first week of February.
Resolute Forest Products did not respond to the Times’ enquiries regarding staffing reductions at the local mill by press time today.
