BUCKSPORT – Union members at the International Paper Co. mill have approved a concession package affecting their existing contract with the company.

The concessions are expected to save the corporation $3.5 million annually, and union leaders hope the revised contract will help to ensure continued operations at the Bucksport mill, which employs approximately 900 workers.

Three of the four unions involved in the negotiations approved the contract concessions in voting last week. The fourth union, Local 1821 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, voted Monday to approve the deal.

“We’re hoping to keep this a four-machine mill,” said Kendall Dunbar, president of Local 1821.

Two of the four machines at the mill are older machines, and there has been concern by union and community members that in an effort to cut costs, the company might shut those machines down.

“If the mill is not cost-effective and those machines are shut down, that would put a lot of people out of work,” Dunbar said. “We’re trying to keep more people working.”

Workers at the two locals of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical & Energy Workers Union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local, voted Thursday and Friday to approve the changes, which reportedly involve forgoing a 2.5 percent wage increase scheduled in May and other concessions involving health care.

“Just look what’s happening at mills around the state of Maine,” said Lance Raymond, president of IBEW Local. “We don’t want the same thing to happen to us.”

Company representatives have said that the changes in the contract would help to keep the mill competitive in a challenging market.

The votes amend the existing contract, which was scheduled to expire April 30, 2005, extending it until July 31, 2007. The millworkers agreed to wage and benefits concessions that were included in the existing contract. The changes will take effect March 1.

“This is nothing but good for the workers,” Don Sorey, vice president of PACE Local 261 said Monday. “If we had negotiated in 2005, we would have lost a lot more. They [the mill] needed something now. This does protect job security.”