Idle for 98 days, the paper mills in East Millinocket and Millinocket moved a step closer to reopening Wednesday when union members overwhelmingly voted to accept a contract with the company seeking to buy bankrupt Great Northern Paper Inc.

Conglomerate Brascan, which owns Fraser Papers Inc. through its forest products subsidiary, Nexfor, is in the process of buying GNP for $103 million.

With record turnouts of 90 percent to 100 percent, a majority of about 875 workers represented by 14 union locals ratified a new six-year labor agreement. The ratification vote came despite the fact that hundreds of these employees know they won’t be going back to work.

Ed Dempsey of East Millinocket is one of these people. As a union president, he wholeheartedly supported and voted for the contract, yet he knows there is no chance he will go back to work at the Millinocket paper mill.

“The goal from day one was to get these mills open and get people back to work,” said Dempsey. “We had everybody out of work. We will have more going back than out of work. We did our job. They [union members] came through big time today. This votes shows good faith.”

Jim Giffune, GNP’s chief executive officer, agreed. He said he and the management team were very pleased and proud of union workers. Giffune and his team were appointed by the bankruptcy court to lead the effort for a successful sale of the bankrupt paper company.

“Working together, this kind of thing happens,” said Giffune, who was moved by the results of the vote. “It justifies my faith in these people. It is evidence for everybody to see why we volunteered to do this.”

Richard Legault, vice president of Brascan, and Bert Martin, president of Fraser, said they were thrilled about the vote.

“We are looking forward to putting this business back into production,” said Legault.

Many union officials said their members were eager to get back to work. “We are ready tonight,” said Galen Hale of Medway, a local union president.

Lucien Deschaine, an international union official, admitted there was some concern because many of the workers voting knew they would not be returning to work. In the end, he said, many recognized the six-year callback provision in the contract would mean if they were called back, they would return to work with all of their benefits and wouldn’t be considered new employees.

The unions’ focus in the next few weeks will be to do all they can to facilitate the closing of the sale, which means supporting Brascan in its needs to successfully close the deal. “It’s one thing to have a ratified contract, but it’s another to have a signed closing,” said Deschaine.

Dave Lowell, another international union official, agreed. “Now, we need to move forward and get the landfill back into the operation and get these paper machines rolling,” said Lowell.

John Davis, a Millinocket local union president, said workers will be taking pay cuts, but the insurance package would help make up for some of the lost wages.

“It was the best deal for the workers because they [Brascan] are going to honor seniority, pay taxes to the communities and are going to make some investments in the mills,” said Davis. “This whole thing is going to be a lot more painful for some of the people who aren’t going back.”

The contract won an 87.5 percent approval from four production union locals, who represent about 490 workers.

Although one of the eight trade union locals voted the contract down, it was ratified because the count is determined by majority rule. The eight trade union locals represent about 310 workers at both paper mills.

Lowell said the one local rejected it because their members favored a recall provision that would have protected more of their particular jobs.

Members of the office workers and the security union local also approved the contract.

The six-year contract is effective from May 1, 2003, runs through April 30, 2009, and provides pay increases totaling 8 percent in the last four years of the contract. Pay rates will be reduced by an average of $2 to $3 per hour. The cost of health and dental insurance will drop significantly. For example, the premium for a family plan will be $72.12 per week instead of $181 per week with no dental care.