Union leaders join forces to help attract GNP buyer

MILLINOCKET – Unions representing a majority of the 1,100 idle workers at Great Northern Paper Inc. are taking dramatic steps to make themselves more employer-friendly, a critical move in attracting a new buyer for the bankrupt paper company.

Gone are the days of having 35 to 45 union representatives at the bargaining table to negotiate four separate labor contracts, something industry analysts say is viewed as a negative by companies today.

With only eight days to go before the March 18 bid deadline for buying the bankrupt company, the 14 local unions have a new streamlined process in place. Only seven local union officials will be sitting at the bargaining table with their respective international representatives. There will be two spokesmen.

The unions hope to negotiate one contract, pending the removal of legal considerations for security workers, instead of four separate contracts.

Tom Griffin, a member of the company’s new management team, said efforts by the local unions have been positive. “The unions recognize the issues,” he said. “I think the unions are doing everything they can to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.”

Griffin said every potential buyer without exception has raised concern about the number of unions and the complexity of the situation.

It marks the first time in 25 years, since the strike of 1978, that the unions will all be at the bargaining table together.

“The fact that all local unions are willing to sit down together at the same time to negotiate a future contract is a giant step forward,” said Dave Lowell, an international union official. “This isn’t something we are forcing down the local leadership’s throat. It is being promoted by local leadership.”

Lowell and Lucien Deschaine, both international union officials, said their message to potential buyers was that the unions were doing everything they could to make themselves easier to deal with.

“The idea is to expedite the process and to remove roadblocks,” said Lowell. “We just want to pave the road to get the mills up and running ASAP and get people back to work.”

Deschaine agreed. He said the unions wanted buyers to know they were willing and ready to address any obstacles to a fair labor agreement. “Our position right now is to make ourselves so streamlined, lean and efficient … that any worries potential buyers may have out there are going to dissolve,” he said.

Both men said there were additional steps the unions could take to further streamline themselves for the long term. The only reason they aren’t moving forward now is they don’t know whether the paper mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket will be owned by one company or two. Under one owner, the unions will likely merge the same locals at each mill together.

Lowell said the unions are very interested and willing to work with potential buyers who want to make investments in the communities and who are not coming in to sell off the remaining pieces and “milk the last few drops out” of these mills.

Deschaine agreed. “We don’t want to get into an environment where within three or four years we are back in court again over another bankruptcy issue,” he said. “We are looking for a long-term commitment.”

With the bid deadline fast approaching, union officials say there is much work to be done in a very short time frame, but they are ready.

“We are facing the most critical challenge in the next week or so in terms of expediting progressive bargaining sessions with potential bidders,” said Deschaine. “Whether we have a week to work or a couple of days to get a labor agreement, we are going to facilitate that.”

Union officials say they have been in discussions with officials of Belgravia Paper Co., a Canadian firm that has offered a $91 million bid for the purchase of Great Northern.

Union officials say they will meet with two other companies this week, but declined to disclose their identities.