Domtar, unions agree on contract proposal

CALAIS – Domtar representatives and union bargainers agreed Friday on a contract proposal that will be voted on early next week by trades unions members at the Baileyville pulp and paper mill.

Members of the four union locals had rejected a Domtar offer Oct. 5 and voted 3-to-1 to strike. But it appears those differences were resolved Friday and the two sides have tentatively agreed to a six-year contract.

The four unions represent 178 workers at the mill, which employs about 600 people. Domtar bought the mill from Georgia-Pacific Corp. in August.

“We’re going to recommend that our members vote for it because it’s a pretty good deal,” said union spokesman Stephen Perry, senior representative of the New England Carpenters Union and a member of the bargaining committee.

Negotiations between the Montreal-based Domtar Inc. and its four trades unions began this past summer. The unions are the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers Local 3, Chapter 330; Local 1057 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Local 1490 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers; and Local 2400 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America.

Earlier, company officials had said that Domtar’s papermakers, in separate negotiations, reached a six-year agreement with the company this week. The Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union Local 27 represents 242 employees.

David Lowell, a representative of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and chief spokesman for Domtar’s trades bargaining unit, said they plan to present the package to employees before going public with the details.

“It has been a long day. Without going into the details of the package, because members have the right to hear before it gets out into the general press, we are satisfied with the negotiations,” he said. “It was tough negotiations. Nothing came easy. There are still parts of the package that we’re not satisfied with, frankly. It’s still a long contract without knowing what the economy is going to do, and the wage increases aren’t substantial. We … were able to address the members’ concerns about a pension, and that’s where we focused our energy and focused our money in the package,” he said.

The two sides talked for more than nine hours Friday.

Company officials were on the telephone and unavailable for comment Friday night. But Thursday night, company spokesman William L. George said the negotiations demonstrated that the company and the unions were willing to work together.

A key issue has been the trades unions workers’ desire to deposit the pension contributions the company makes with a national union-run pension plan.

Several years ago, the trades unions voted not to participate in G-P’s then-new pension plan. The company had dissolved an earlier version. Last year, the unions picketed the company, but G-P refused to budge. With the purchase of the mill looming, the unions agreed to a one-year contract.

Before the current negotiations began, employees agreed that the No. 1 issue would be the restoration of the pension plan, and they wanted to participate in the International Association of Machinists’ plan.

The company agreed to the restoration of a pension plan and offered to contribute 65 cents an hour per employee, which would provide an employee a $30 per month benefit for each year of service. That offer would have been retroactive to the beginning of this year. But the offer was contingent on the employees’ agreement to join the Domtar plan.

Union negotiators said they compared the figures and discovered that if they joined the IAM pension fund the same 65 cents per hour would provide an employee $56 a month for each year of service, almost twice the benefit the company offered.

Domtar is the second-largest producer of uncoated free sheet paper in North America and the third-largest in the world.