Time to heal

The concessions have been made, the deals have been signed. Now it’s time for the healing to begin in Great Northern land.

That there is a need for healing at all is the unfortunate and sad consequence of three factors: calculated indifference by Bowater, the seller; mixed messages from Inexcon, the buyer; and apparent paralysis by state government, the bystander.

The product of these factors was worker pitted against worker, union against union, town against town. For months, East Millinocket was told its more modern and productive mill, it jobs, its future was being dragged down by the millstone in Millinocket. The not-subtle word to workers at both mills, echoed with shocking frequency by their neighbors, local officials and others who should have been allies, was that they were overpaid and should be content with the standard of living enjoyed by their papermaking counterparts in Mississippi or Indonesia.

With the sale of its two mills, forest lands and hydro system, Bowater’s seven-year presence in Maine comes to an end. The South Carolina-based corporation will not be missed. Its failure to follow through on promised capital improvements, its plea of poverty as it enjoyed industry-leading earnings, its blatant efforts to drive a wedge between the two affected communities, will be its doleful legacy. And the words of relief by Bowater executive for the successful concession votes will always ring hollow.

None of this was done in malice, of course; it was strictly business. Several of the leading business publications (Forbes, Fortune, The Economist, for example) lately have noted with alarm the increasing downside of compensating top executives with stock options and earnings-based performance bonuses instead of salary — decisions are made not with an eye to building for generations to come but to the current fiscal year’s bottom line. It’s a phenomenon that’s been written about; Maine now has lived it.

Inexcon chief Lambert Bedard seems to have ended these contract negotiations by acting in good faith; the route to that end was needlessly circuitous. When the Quebec-based company first entered the picture, reining in benefits was the sole concern. Then it was a deep wage cut, then a wage freeze and now back to benefits. Whether this wavering was driven by uncertainty or bluffing, a situation so vital to the very existence of two entire communities deserved better than to be treated like either a guessing game or a poker game.

GNP workers are fully justified in wondering about the lack of involvement by state officials. Yes, Gov. King did cancel his trip to the national governor’s conference last weekend to focus, to a degree not yet clear, upon this issue, but it was a focus very late in coming. The low profile kept by former Gov. Kenneth Curtis, a Bowater board member and a Democrat with at least a theoretical interest in the working class, was duly noted and puzzled over. No one expected or desired angry chest-thumping, but GNP workers certainly could have used some moral support, some public statements about their worth.

Time to act

The state could have done much more than offer kind words about its work force. It was suggested early on that government officials should meet with Bowater and Inexcon to determine if a package of state assistance could help revive the Millinocket mill. That was not done. Now, after the concessions have been won, any future request by Inexcon for state assistance will be seen as double-dipping.

It was also suggested that some of the able economists on the state payroll could have helped GNP workers sort out the concession proposals and evaluate the viability of the alternative to Inexcon, an employee-led buyout. Those also were not done. As a result, workers were left to themselves to figure out whether the concessions were reasonable and necessary or empty threats. Employee buyouts can work — this one, lacking the kind of independent assessment the state could have provided of the proposed management team and financing arrangements, was plagued throughout by uncertainty and suspicion.

This crisis has passed, but the state has some work to do. Paper mills are a crucial part of the economy in regions with little other employment to offer. It is time for the state to conduct a thorough evaluation of the condition and productivity of its mills and to develop a proactive assistance program. Also, it is increasingly obvious that some of the biggest recipients, in pulp and paper as well as other industries, of assistance from Maine’s existing programs give nothing in return. Maine must recraft its tax breaks and other incentives to reward companies that want to be part of the state’s future, not those that take the money and run.

Thanks almost exclusively to Mr. Bedard’s apparently earnest desire to build a company for the long haul and to the willingness of GNP workers to make concessions once they’ve been proven necessary, Maine has dodged a bullet that could have cost it 1,500 of its best jobs. Millinocket and East Millinocket have been through an anguishing summer, but the wounds will heal. It’s the state’s duty to prevent such wounds from being inflicted ever again.