Resolute cuts 45 jobs in Fort Frances, Ontario
January 27th, 2012 | Posted in Mill Closures & Layoffs | 20 comments »
Resolute Forest Products (formerly AbitibiBowater), will not be recalling 45 people to work when they resume paper production next week.
The 45 job cuts represent approximately 16% of the Fort Frances workforce.
Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada’s (CEP) Ontario vice-president Kim Ginter said the workers have a pattern collective agreement and the company will have to stick to the agreement. That means the union is not going to negotiate concessions to lessen the impact.
Ginter told the Fort Frances Times that the 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.”
The kraft mill is scheduled to restart tomorrow. A paper machine will follow next week.
Paper production was curtailed at the mill at the end of November, and both kraft and paper production have been curtailed completely since Christmas.
Read more:
Fewer people to be working at local mill (Fort Frances Times)
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20 Responses to Resolute cuts 45 jobs in Fort Frances, Ontario
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Everyone direct your attention to a sentence in that piece written alot now in press releases about the CEP which is: “That means the union is NOT going to…..” Feel free to watch for different flavours of text to follow the end of that from now on and that means collecting dues for nothing for as long as we can. YES they will charge you alot for NOT!
LOL,they r comming after this mill the same way as the rest of the mills.the union will fold or they will shut you down and start another mill .good luck guys,but the writing is on the wall.
Wish the CEP Atlantic Rep and VP would of said the same thing when we were taking it up the old pooper. Recall and seniority meant sweet fa to those guys. Pattern ! Whats that ? Nice words Kim but could you please explain what that is ? Is it Mersey’s new contract ? Because if its not then some folks in the Atlantic would like to know where their dues are going and just why your holding hundreds of thousands of dollars in strike fund money that they have contributed
As a retired CEP member from Ontario I would also like to know where the extra money for the strike fund is. When we voted on this at our local, the area rep was present and we were told it was to ensure everyone got the pattern. Also told that if the fund was not used it would be returned to the members. Well brothers and sisters, that was before the the 2010 contract. With approximately $1000 of MY money in that fund and this being 2012 when will the National return the funds as promised? It’s my understanding they have not paid a red cent of this fund to anyone as of this date.
Last count, I heard there are still some locals left in the East as we speak. When everyone is done hopefully soon, we all get our money back.
Dig in yer heals fort glad to hear your drawing a line wish Quebec and the Maritimes had been out there taking a strong position as well.
Please enlighten me Kim, how is it possible that this company can take away union jobs and replace them with nonunion contractors and we as a union are going to in your own words “live with the lesser numbers”. That is pure BS, just like the new WI plan that the national has brought us back to vote on. It must be nice to sit around and watch the dues roll in while the rest of us try to make a go of life in the real world. To your question whocares, we have been told that this is not the mersey deal. However we have never really been given the full story about what u guys on the east coast actually voted on. Good thing the natioal has said we would all stick together and not the them bully us or play one mill against another eh?
From what i hear about the Mersey deal, Courtney and the local boys decided to do their own thing and didn;t even want the national at their union meeting to vote on it. If thats not right how come courtey is no where to be found and pulled his parachute. How did that bash everyone else and do your own thing work out? We’re two years from going to the table and i understand even the US unions have got together with us to say no more divide and conquer. It sounds like Fort said no to concessions and if your cutting jobs, cut jobs by the contract and people are still taking pot shots. Starting to think nothing will make some people happy.It starts here boys with stopping bashing of your union and your sisters and brothers at the other mills.
I am sure with a little help from national the no vote would have won.I hope you are wrong. 3 yearstogo
Since Kim wont answer me maybe 3years can. So how is it that the last time the company reduced our numbers in 92 we had to vote on weather or not we would give up jobs that would be replaced by nonunion workers, this time it sounds like the local exec and Kim are fine with it . His words “live with the lesser numbers” not mine. Your comment about Courney pulling his parachute is shows exactly how uch you know about what happened in Mersey. Firstly Courney did not pull HIS parachute, Courney my uneducated friend is a woman, one that spoke her mind and believed in the no vote at Mersey, so when the vote that she believed in she was not there she realized that she was not in line with her membership and stepped down as the leader of her local and went to look for another job. Quite a noble gesture if u ask me, to bad our local leadership here did not have the same balls. We reject a ratification vote and we eat it anyway, we pass a motion at a meetng to not interfere with another unions arbitration and we disregard the memberships wishes and go anyway. I hope my info on the situation regarding Courntey is correct, if not I stand to be corrected by someone with first hand knowledge of the situation at Mersey
My appologies to you Courney, I was mistaken with my comments about you being a woman, I hope you dont think I was being disrespectfull by any means. Like most people on this site I should have done alittle more research before shooting off my mouth.
Looked a little silly on that one abi
Abi you should read your last sentence in your last post before writing anything else in the future!!! Kind of sums up most of your posts and couldn’t get much more blatant when you go on a rant and don’t even get the sex of a union official right.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/34039-bowater-workers-thrown-under-bus
You are so right 3years, the only difference between you and me is that I got the balls to admit my mistake, once again my apologies to u Courtney.
abi sucks got it all about right except for the sex. 3years and others sure like to throw Courtney’s name out there a lot. Why don’t you do a little research before you spout out about people and situations you have no idea about. The bit about the National not being invited to anything is far from the truth my friend. But since you seem to know Courtney and the Local boys so well why don’t you pick up the phone and call them. Apparently you were not at the caucus in Montreal last month to hear the truth. You couldn’t of heard how the CEP Atlantic region reps refused to go with the Local to Montreal out of fear it would like bargaining. You probably didn’t hear that those same Reps encouraged that the vote take place and encouraged a yes vote so the mill wouldn’t close. Apparently you didn’t hear Courtney’s pleas to stop or slow down the vote because he believed that there was already a CA in place and that voting would have ramifications on free collective bargaining in NS and affect the industry in all of Eastern Canada. You probably didn’t hear, that after 51% of the the members voted yes and the Gov’t came through with the power and millions, those same Reps were down to shake hands and claim victory over what can happen when everybody works together. What was it you said, Courtney parachuted ? Ya that’s right, you fool. So now the man has no job, no union and his dignity is being taken from by jerks like you that have no idea what really happened. Walk a mile in his shoes,actually watch the video lorax posted, ask your self what that National Union is doing about it now. He’s still under the bus and it keeps backing up !
well all i can say in the hopes this infighting between all of us brothers stops is this story was about Fort and how it appeared ontario was hopefully taking a lot stronger position. The story i read was pretty clear about the contract will be followed and there will be no concessions period. If that means 45 jobs go then they go, but there wont be negotiations to try and chase contract changes to save them. Thats a position we should all want so not sure why this turned into a mudslinging exchange. I think Abitibi Resolute or whatever other name they pick rightfully deserves every shot we can take at them, but they must sit back and laugh as these forums always turn into us taking shots at each other instead of garneau, patterson and the rest of the rats that destroyed this company and put us in a position to have to save it.
3yearstogo, The only person trash talking here is you. Please get your facts straight before you open your mouth. Wentzell did all he could to do right. The members voted, the national disappeared and hung us out to dry. In case you don’t know is the only time our national rep. shows up is when the company really wants something from us or there is a free lunch in there somewhere.
The problem is not with the workers, it is with the unions. The union business model does not work which is why unions are on the decline in the private sector. The union model charges the workers money and adds no value. The added cost for no added value gets put onto the employer then the end user. Hence an overpriced product.
Let’s not forget the fact that just last year Abbi-Bow just gave 50 of their execs huge dollars. As Dave Peterson said on BNN “We have to give out these large amounts of money to prove to shareholders that we are a profitable company”. These are not exact words from him but close enough to the truth that we need to give ludicrous amounts of money to our chosen few so then we can justify laying off more workers company wide. The whole thing looks bad and stinks as bad as a bleach plant. Once these jobs are cut we can slowly see the tell tale signs of more to come and another ghost town brought to you by Abbi-Bow and their well displayed affection of corporate greed. Who is to say that they will follow through with their “contractual agreements” and such things as severance pay, pensions, etc? Remeber folks, they have more time and money than we ever will. They could drag this out for a long time, especially since they changed their name. Can anyone say Bankruptcy Protection Part Deux? Sure Ginter can talk his strong union language all he wants but lets remember who is actually holding all the ace’s….one hint-it’s not the CEP this time around. tick-tock go the clock……….