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17 December, 2007
The ICEM North American affiliate, Communications, Energy, Paperworkers (CEP) Union of Canada, announced its intention to re-open sector-wide Eastern Canadian pulp and paper bargaining in efforts to stop the closure of mills and the loss of jobs. Meeting in Montreal on 5-6 December, local union leaders at Canada's largest paper company, AbitibiBowater, adopted the measure as part of an action plan to halt mill closures.
The announcement by leaders of 35 local unions came in the wake of AbitibiBowater’s plan to sack 1,000 paperworkers with the closure of four mills – in Dalhousie, New Brunswick, McKenzie, British Columbia, and Shawinigan and Donnacona, both in Quebec. The closures mean Canada has now lost 20,000 forest sector jobs in the past two to three years.
The proposal to enter talks early will be put to a conference of all pulp and paper local unions from Eastern Canada early in 2008. CEP then will be entering year four of a five-year contract covering 25,000 paperworkers in the eastern half of the country.
“We’re taking the bull by the horns,” stated CEP President Dave Coles. “As a union, there are ways we can help cut costs that don’t involve concessions, and we want to put them forward.” The CEP president stressed that the union will not re-open contracts with the intent to cut wages or benefits.
In 2004, Abitibi was the lead company for the CEP in pattern bargaining in Eastern Canada. The company's latest round of announced cuts occurs shortly after the Canadian company finalised its merger with US-based Bowater.
CEP President Dave Coles
“We want to sit down face-to-face with AbitibiBowater to explore their closure announcements in detail," said Coles, adding that talks would centre on all possible alternative plans for the mills. He said early retirements and transition plans for the affected workers would be on the table.
The CEP is also calling on AbitibiBowater and all major pulp and paper companies to join the union in convening a national forest industry summit to agree on urgent matters to support the industry. The union believes the federal government, led by Premier Stephen Harper, has turned a deaf ear to the crisis in the country's forest products industry, a crisis that has severely impacted tens of thousands of Canadians residing in rural areas.