Read this article in:
14 July, 2008
The Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada reached agreement with Canfor Pulp Ltd. on 6 July, marking the bargaining pattern for this year’s pulp and paper sector for the Canadian West.
And then on 10 July, that pattern was achieved for 480 CEP members at Howe Sound Pulp and Paper Ltd., an enterprise north of Vancouver, British Colombia, jointly owned by Vancouver-based Canfor and Oji Paper of Japan.
The four-year Canfor accord, retroactive to 1 April 2008, will now be used this summer as the pattern for some 12 other pulp, paper, and converting companies, employing 14,000 CEP union members in Western Canada.
CEP President Dave Coles
“Under the current economic conditions, it is a very good settlement. It will set the pattern in the Canadian West, and hopefully for the Eastern section of Canada next year as well,” said CEP President Dave Coles. Coles said a key accomplishment was bringing the term’s contract length down from six years to four.
CEP members at a Canfor Prince George, British Colombia, pulp mill, as well as linerboard mill workers at a separate mill there will begin voting on the agreement tomorrow. Howe Sound workers will vote 30 July. The pattern is expected to be presented at Catalyst Paper’s four locations next.
The tentative agreement calls for wage increases of 2% in the first year, 2.5% each in the second and third years, and 3% in the fourth. In addition, the tentative agreement contains significant benefit increases, a C$.70-an-hour craft trades adjustment, and job security provisions, including a severance package.
The CEP attempted to negotiate a contract extension with the Canadian East’s lead company, AbitibiBowater, in early March, a year ahead of scheduled expirations there. But that company came to the table seeking major concessions, and talks were ended. Contracts for 20,000 unionised pulp and paperworkers in the East, including 5,500 at AbitibiBowater’s 13 mills, expire 1 April 2009.