Displaying items by tag: CEP

The Mackenzie pulp mill in British Columbia has been acquired by Paper Excellence B.V., for an undisclosed sum. The transaction secures the future of the mill which is expected to resume production of high quality NBSK pulp in the fall. The Mackenzie mill employs over 240 workers and will generate significant additional economic activity and jobs within the region.

Paper Excellence B.V. is a Netherland-based company associated with one of the world's largest pulp and paper producers of Asia Pulp and Paper brands.

This Mackenzie mill is the Paper Excellence Group's second acquisition in Canada. It currently owns and operates a pulp mill in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.

"We are very pleased to have a company like Paper Excellence establish itself in British Columbia," says Pat Bell, Minister of Forests and Range. "It already has experience in Canada with its mill in Meadow Lake and the company has maintained a high level of safe profitable production and regulatory compliance."

It took a concerted effort by a number of organizations and groups to get the mill to the point where it could resume production. Team Mackenzie of the Mackenzie Pulp Mill Development Corporation preserved the capacity of the mill to resume production. The Provincial Government worked with the District of Mackenzie to consolidate and reduce the debt of the mill.

"I want to credit the hard working public servants in the Rural BC Secretariat for the instrumental role they played in crafting a deal that will ensure hundreds of people in Mackenzie can head back to work," said B.C. Community and Rural Development Minister Bill Bennett. "It is personally gratifying to be able to help the District of Mackenzie at a time when the people of Mackenzie really need it."

The McLeod Lake Indian Band worked with the Ministry of Forests and Range to help secure the fibre needed to start the mill.

"We are very pleased that we have been able to work with the government and the community and be part of the effort to bring the mill back into production," says Chief Derek Orr of the McLeod Lake Indian Band. "By working together we can provide benefits for the entire region."

Also important was the negotiation of a new collective agreement with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP). The agreement preserves wages, benefits and pensions, while enabling the mill to reopen with significant cost reductions.

"This is very good news for our members and for the community of Mackenzie," says CEP Western Region Vice President Jim Britton. "We are extremely happy to see our members return to well paying jobs within the forest industry and that it looks like they have a future in this industry."

CEP members at Fraser Papers' Edmundston mill have voted 69.3% to ratify an agreement to change the pension plan and complete the conditions required for the company to restructure and emerge from bankruptcy protection.

"This was a very difficult decision for our members but it was the least of two evils," said CEP Atlantic Vice-President Ervan Cronk, following ratification meetings held over the weekend.

"Bargaining into the wee hours of the morning, we were able to lessen the blow on pensioners and active employees," said Cronk. "The result is that they will realize about 10% more of what they would otherwise have been entitled to.

"But we have made it very clear to the company that we will be back to fight another day to restore pensions.

"Goverments must not be allowed to sit back on their heels while companies use bankruptcy protection laws to shed millions of dollars in debt on the backs of pensioners." "We have turned a page at Fraser Papers but we will continue the fight for justice," added CEP National President Dave Coles.

"The struggle at Fraser Papers revealed everything that is wrong with a system that allows companies like Brookfield Asset Management to make pensioners and workers the victims of restructuring."

The agreement at Fraser Papers will see an 8-year extension of Fraser's insolvent pension plan. This will require legislative changes by the New Brunswick government.

After arduous negotiations, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) has agreed to a tentative agreement with AbitibiBowater to renew the collective agreement. This deal fulfills an essential condition towards the emergence of the company from the current restructuring process.

"We have the best possible agreement, given the precarious financial condition of the company", says CEP President Dave Coles. "We are proud to have been able to protect retirees and to have created a new stable pension plan for the active workers. Our members will no longer have to fear the shadow of an insolvency of their plan".

The company took off the table its proposal to terminate the pension plans, which would have reduced pension benefits by an average of 25%. Provincial government will now bear the responsibility to adopt the appropriate regulatory changes to allow the company to financially fix the pension plans.

However, the union is furious at the total lack of help shown by the Conservative government to the forestry workers. "It is our members who had to make sacrifices to save the company from bankruptcy", says Dave Coles. "The last federal budget fully demonstrated the contempt of this government for forestry workers. It is now clear for our workers, our retirees and our communities that the Conservatives have abandoned them".

This agreement covers about 4,500 workers and 8,000 retirees from 23 AbitibiBowater locals at 12 pulp and paper mills in Eastern Canada.