Lincoln’s workers go to polls Eastern Paper employees in Brewer to resume talks

BREWER and LINCOLN – About 385 unionized workers at Eastern Paper’s Lincoln mill head to the polls today to vote on a concession proposal, while union and company officials at its sister mill in Brewer prepare to resume talks on Friday.

Earlier this week, Brewer union workers rejected concessions aimed at helping the mill’s financially troubled parent company, Eastern Pulp & Paper Corp. The corporation, which owns mills in Lincoln and Brewer, filed for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code last September.

Company and Brewer union officials met Wednesday for more than three hours. Another meeting is scheduled for Friday.

After the session, Duane Lugdon, an international representative for the Paper, Allied Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, said union officials outlined the concerns of workers.

“The company needs time to analyze what it heard,” said Lugdon. “We just need to go forward on Friday and see where we go.”

Later, Douglas Walsh, the company’s executive vice president of operations, characterized Wednesday’s meeting as informational.

The company vice president said the union expressed concern about having better communication with upper management regarding the company’s business plans.

“I assured them that in my expanded role with the company one of my priorities was to bridge the gap between the mills, sales and marketing and the company ownership,” he said.

Walsh said company officials made it clear that they needed the cost savings from the proposed changes in the health care plan and needed them immediately. “We made no revisions to our initial offer,” he said.

In the meantime, Lincoln union officials are urging all members to attend informational meetings today and to vote on the concession proposal.

Informational meetings will be held at noon, 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at the union hall. The polls will be open from noon to 7 p.m. Thursday at the union hall.

The Lincoln proposal includes a 3.5 percent across-the-board pay cut effective Jan. 29 and foregoing a 2.5 percent wage increase scheduled for Aug. 1. Instead of giving a 3-percent pay increase in 2002 and 2003, the company will give a 3.5- and a 4-percent pay increase in those years. For extending the contract one more year, the company will pay a 4.5-percent pay increase in 2004.

Currently, the company pays $660 a month for an employee’s full-service major medical family plan. Employees now pay about $95 a month for the coverage.

The company proposed paying a maximum of $620 a month for employees, who have the full-service family plan, with the employee picking up the balance beginning Sept. 1. Information about what the rates might be is not known at this time. In later years, any insurance increases or decreases would mean the company would pay 60 percent of the increase or realize a savings, and employees would pay 40 percent of the increase or realize a savings.

Also, the Lincoln proposal provides an additional $1 per month increase for each year of service for employees’ pensions in the last year of the contact.