CEP members ratify mill deal

Some 4,500 members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada have ratified a new five-year contract with Abitibi-Consolidated.
Results of the week-long vote by CEP locals across Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland were announced late Friday night by Brian Payne, CEP national president and chief negotiator.
“This agreement will serve as a pattern for the rest of the pulp and paper industry across Eastern Canada,” said Payne.
“Our task now is to ensure that the same terms and conditions bargained at Abitibi are obtained for our other 25,000 members in the industry here,” he added.
The Abitibi deal calls for wage increases totalling 11 percent, improved vacations, and major improvements in health benefits and pensions, including provision for retirement at age 57 with full pension over the term of the agreement.
“This is a contract for our times,” said Payne. “Our members clearly believe it serves their interests and we know that the rest of the industry can afford to accept it.”
The previous contract had expired April 30. It was reached in 1998 after a five-month strike.
Talks to reach a new agreement between Abitibi-Consolidated and its unionized employees at its mills in central and eastern Canada began May 7. They broke down May 22.
A strike vote taken by CEO members between May 26 and June 7 passed by a 95.4 percent margin.
CEP is the largest forestry workers’ union in Canada, with some 50,000 members in forestry and 150,000 members in total.
Its leadership will work out details of a bargaining strategy for continuing the industry pattern negotiations in the coming weeks.