MADAWASKA – It could be as many as 45 to 50 days before people getting layoff slips from Fraser Papers Co. at Madawaska know their future.

Discussions on early retirements between the company and PACE, a union with four locals in the mill, ended Tuesday morning. Union personnel were to be informed of the early retirement package proposal and other issues at mass meetings scheduled later Tuesday and on Wednesday.

The job cuts were announced April 10 by Bert Martin, Fraser Papers Co. president, who said that 325 jobs would be cut from the nearly 1,600 jobs at the company’s Madawaska-Edmundston complex. The number of jobs at Madawaska alone was listed at 190 out of the workforce of 1,024 people. Of that number, 153 will come from union roles and 37 will be from salaried personnel.

Human resources manager Richard Marston said Tuesday afternoon that employees eligible for early retirement packages would receive letters informing them of the company proposal in the next few days.

Employees will have 45 days to consider the option.

“Once we know how many will accept the option, we will know how people will be left in the job reduction situation,” Marston said. “We can’t discuss the information included in the early retirement packages.”

Marston said 90 union members and 24 salaried personnel are eligible for the early retirement proposals. He said packages for the two groups are similar.

The union is optimistic about saving many jobs involved in the first cuts ever made at the papermaking complex, according to Lucien Deschaine, PACE international representative.

“Our goal is to save as many of the 150 proposed job losses as we can,” Deschaine said late Monday afternoon. “We are optimistic that we can do that.

“We have been negotiating with the company since last week, and we will present the results to members at meetings on Tuesday,” he continued. “We are amending some [union] contract language, and we may need to have a vote from members.”

Despite the possibility of some contract changes, Deschaine said the “integrity of the [labor] contract should be intact.”

Deschaine said the median age of union workers at Fraser’s Madawaska mill is 48 years. During the next three years, 50 to 75 vacancies will occur naturally.

The company is offering early retirement packages to workers who will be 59 years old by July 1.

The company wants to “lower the cost per ton” to produce paper, according to Deschaine. He maintained that can be done in more ways than cutting people from the payroll.

The union representative said the company is looking to eliminate most “lower level jobs” and to have others do the duties of those jobs.

“They want to maintain the same production level,” he said. “But they want to do it with less people.

“Our [the union’s] goal is to save jobs,” Deschaine said. “We would like to see early retirements for most position cuts to save the jobs of junior workers.”

The union official said he was optimistic that could be done.