Tag Archives: CEP

Resolute Forest Products is shutting down its newsprint mill in Thunder Bay, Ontario for 2 weeks.

110 workers will be affected by the downtime that starts on Wednesday.

The shut down is being blamed on market conditions and high costs.

Contracting Out

There is a growing concern at the Thunder Bay mill concerning the contracting out of union jobs.

Resolute Forest Products wants to contract out 42 jobs to control costs at the mill.  The CEP union has filed a grievance over the contracting out proposal and expects an arbitration hearing will be called.

The 42 positions are in newsprint shipping, kraft pulp shipping, garage maintenance, bark inventory and handling.

Read more:
Layoffs ahead at Resolute pulp mill (The Chronicle Journal)

A committee has been formed in Thunder Bay, Ontario that is looking into cancer rates at the their pulp and paper mill.

Bob Hoffman, a spokesman for the CEP, said, “In general [the cancer rate is high] in Thunder Bay, but it seems to be higher at certain areas of the mill.”

The committee includes Resolute Forest Products, as current owner of the mill, and representatives from the 4 unions present at the mill.

Some of the areas of the mill that the committee are most concerned about are no longer operating and have been cleaned up.

A letter has been sent out to all past and present mill employees asking them to fill out a health questionnaire.  The data from the survey is being collected by the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers so the personal information and health details are kept private.

Read more:
Unions concerned about cancer at Thunder Bay mill (CBC)

Town hall meeting
Thursday February 28, 2013
6pm – Nechako Room, Coast Inn of the North, 770 Brunswick St, Prince George, BC

Organized by the BC Federation of Labour, with the support of the BCGEU, United Steelworkers, CEP and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

BC’s unionized forestry workers are inviting concerned Prince George citizens to a town hall meeting on Thursday February 28 starting at 6pm to discuss and find solutions to the ongoing crisis in BC forests.

“The forestry industry in and around Prince George has been hard hit over the last decade by job losses, raw log exports, and the mountain pine beetle devastation. Over the last decade, viable mills were shutdown while raw log exports grew dramatically,” says BCGEU President Darryl Walker. “People in forest communities understand it’s not just about the direct jobs in the forest, or related milling and manufacturing jobs, it’s also about the indirect jobs and benefits to local communities that come from forest workers.”

” British Columbians deserve to know their forests are being managed sustainably and in the public interest—maintaining forest-sector jobs, while preserving ecosystems. But years of government staffing cuts, lack of inventory work and mismanagement have contributed to a real state of crisis in our forests,” says Walker. “We need to work together to demand that government invest in research, reforestation, and compliance and enforcement to ensure healthy forests today, and in the future.”

Prince George community members attending the Thursday’s meeting will have an opportunity to hear from provincial and local forestry experts, and will be engaged in a dialogue about how we work together to draw attention the crisis and develop a community plan of action ahead of the May 14 provincial election.

Some mill workers of Resolute Forest Products’ mill in Fort Frances, Ontario are being temporarily recalled.

The workers will be working on a scheduled maintenance repair.

CFOB-News is reporting about a dozen CEP union members are being recalled, and some from other unions. They have been asked to report in early March.

Read more:
Some Mill Workers Returning To Work (CFOB)

Workers at Resolute Forest Products mills in Ontario and Quebec today demanded that Quebec’s pension regulator, the Régie Des rentes, and the company reach an agreement to resolve the solvency deficit in the pension plan without any cuts to benefits.

“The company and the Régie must work out a plan in the coming weeks to solve the funding problem for the pension plan. Our members sent a strong message today that we will not agree to any cuts in pension benefits,” said Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union President Dave Coles.

CEP local union delegates from 10 Resolute mills met in Montreal yesterday to review developments with the company’s traditional defined benefit plan covering about 3,500 active employees and 25,000 retirees.

Under the terms of an agreement with the Régie Des rentes, the company is obligated to increase its special payments after the solvency ratio for the plan fell in 2011. The company and the pension regulator are currently holding discussions on “corrective measures” to cover a more than $500 million additional deficit, on top of the $1.3 billion pension deficit that the former AbitibiBowater owed when it emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2010.

“The company and the Régie must remember that workers gave up wages and benefits on the understanding that the company would be responsible for the traditional plan without cuts to benefits,” said Coles.” And we also established a new pension plan for the future which eliminates any risk for the company.

“Resolute and the Régie both have a responsibility now to find a solution that maintains the long-term commitments to our members and retirees.”

Source: CEP

Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), will be in New York City tomorrow to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.

Coles will be part of a panel discussion on the role of trade unions in confronting the climate crisis organized by the Worker Institute at Cornell and the Joseph S. Murphy Institute at City University of New York (CUNY).

“As Canada’s largest energy union, CEP has always believed strongly that the climate crisis must be addressed in the most pressing terms,” said Coles. “It is why we oppose export pipelines such as Keystone XL that sell off our oil resources and kill jobs in the process.”

CEP believes that it is necessary to transition away from fossil energies by reducing emissions and investing in green energies while ensuring a just transition for energy workers and their communities.

Source: CEP

Lionel Forsyth, a former CEP union president, said the union should be paying for a lawyer for the NewPage pensioners who were told they each have to pay back thousands in pension overpayments.

Forsyth told CBC that “the union should represent the unionized brothers and sisters that are now facing financial devastation. I think they should represent them with the lawyers’ fees.”

There are approximately 250 workers who retired early from NewPage Port Hawkesbury in Nova Scotia have been paid a collective $5 million too much according to Morneau Shepell Ltd. the current pension plan administrator.  Morneau Shepell has blamed the error on the previous plan administrator, Aon PLC.

Morneau Shepell has asked Aon to pay for the error. If an agreement can’t be reached, the matter may end up in court.

Read more of this story from CBC:

Hire lawyer for NewPage pensioners, leader urges - Pensioners told they owe combined $5 million in pension overpayments

Dave Coles, National President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), said the announcement of the agreement with Resolute Forest Products and the Washington Post Company made by the Nova Scotia government is “great news for the forest industry”.

“This is extremely beneficial to retirees as it will have a very positive impact on the health of the pension plan for workers at the former Bowater mill,” said Coles.

Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter made the announcement today in Halifax stating that the government was gaining control of the company’s assets and taking over the its liabilities, including the former employee’s pension plan.

“It is encouraging to see that the government has acquired assets that hold sufficient value to cover the liabilities of the pension plan.” added Coles. “We have here an exciting opportunity for those who are interested in community forest control”.

“We have always believed that forestry is not a sunset industry,” added Coles in closing. “Industry renewal takes vision and political will, both of which the Nova Scotia government has demonstrated today.”

Source: CEP

CEP Local 1119 at the Howe Sound Pulp and Paper mill in Port Mellon, British Columbia has a solid strike mandate.

82% of the over 400 workers in the Local voted on November 29.

99.4% of the votes cast endorsed strike action.

A mediator has been appointed by the B.C. Labour Relations Board.  Meetings with the mediator are expected for mid-January.

In a media release Tuesday, CEP national representative Dave Schaub said the company “remains to have significant concessions on their agenda,” but he was hopeful the two sides could reach a deal using a “pattern settlement” as a basis for agreement.

“The parties commenced negotiations to reach a renewed labour agreement on Sept. 14 using the pattern agreement that was reached with both Canfor Pulp and Northwood Pulp in July 2012 as a basis for settlement,” the union said in its release. “The pattern agreement has been ratified in four of five CEP certifications that are part of the pattern bargaining process, with Howe Sound Pulp and Paper being the last employer yet to conclude a new collective agreement with its workers,” the release said.

Read more:
Union hoping to avert strike at HSPP (Coast Reporter)
CEP Local 1119  (Local’s website)

Many people are deeply worried about the future of Fort Frances, Ontario after Resolute Forest Products announced the indefinite idling of both the kraft mill and of paper machine #5.

239 lay off notices were sent out yesterday.   Approximately 200 employees will stay on to operate paper machine #7.

Larry Kellar, president of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Local 92, told the Fort Frances Times that he expects some mill workers will stay around to see if the kraft mill and paper machine #5 are restarted, but he thinks many will leave.

Kellar said he believes it is vital for the mill to find a market for selling kraft.  Last month the Boise Inc. paper mill in across the river in International Falls, Minnesota stopped regular pulp purchases from the Fort Frances mill.

“Truth be told, if they can’t bounce back from this, this mill will not survive with one machine, not forever,” warned Kellar, adding the paper machines in Fort Frances are smaller than at many other mills.

Fort Frances’ mayor, Roy Avis, said a shutdown had been rumoured for some time but the news yesterday was grim nonetheless.

Kenora-Rainy River MPP Sarah Campbell said, “This is a very difficult day for Fort Frances and all of Northwestern Ontario, and my thoughts are with the 239 workers and their families who have been affected by this decision.”

Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP John Rafferty said yesterday’s announcement of 239 layoffs at the local mill “are devastating for the workers and their families, and are a significant threat to the struggling Northwestern Ontario economy.”

“This news came as a shock today,” Rafferty said. “My heart goes out to the families and constituents who are directly and indirectly affected by these layoffs. My staff and I are ready to assist anyone who will be affected by this devastating announcement.”

Sources:
Kraft mill, #5 machine idled (Fort Frances Times Online)
Poll: How do you feel about the future of Fort Frances? (Fort Frances Times Online)