Production workers in four unions at Great Northern Paper Co.’s East Millinocket and Millinocket paper mills have rejected a concession package they were asked to accept by Inexcon and Bowater Inc.

Thursday’s vote could derail Bowater’s planned $250 million sale of Great Northern to Quebec-based Inexcon, putting the economic future of the area in doubt.

“That is the end of our town,” said Jim Mingo, a Millinocket Town Council member, after learning of the vote.

According to union officials, 91 percent of the mills’ 720 production workers voted Thursday. They would not disclose the margin by which the concession package was rejected, however, and they offered no further comment.

Inexcon President Lambert Bedard could not be reached Thursday night. In the past, Inexcon has said that concessions from unionized workers were necessary to make the deal feasible.

Gordon Manuel, a Bowater spokesman, said the company obviously was very disappointed with the results. “We will have to regather and figure out where we go from here,” he said.

Manuel previously said that he expected the sale to be completed by July 30. “Obviously we are not going to meet that deadline,” he said. “As long as Bowater and Inexcon are willing to make this deal work, we can go to a point.”

But Manuel said he didn’t know how much more the companies could negotiate. “I can’t speculate whether anything can be done at this time,” Manuel said.

According to Patrick McTeague, a Topsham attorney representing eight trade unions with 400 workers, union leaders decided Thursday to take the concession package to their members for a vote next week. These trade workers have a different contract from the production personnel who voted Thursday.

The concession package that production workers were asked to accept included no pay cuts but a five-year freeze on pay. It also required workers to pick up a substantial increase in health insurance costs.

According to McTeague, the offer trade unionists will vote on next week is similar to the one rejected by production workers.

The office workers union, which represents about 85 people, has already voted on Inexcon’s proposal. On Wednesday, a majority opted not to continue talks with Inexcon, but to continue working under their existing labor agreement, which expires May 31, 2002. Union President Alan Higgins said the first two days of talks with Inexcon President Lambert Bedard went well, but talks soured when Jim Wright, a Bowater official, began making threats about the mill closing and other issues.

The security guards’ union, which represents about 25 people, also has voted down Inexcon’s proposal. On Friday, the guards will vote on whether to negotiate a better package with Inexcon or to stay with their existing labor agreement, which expires Oct. 31, 2002.

The existing labor agreements for production and maintenance workers will expire July 31, 2001. On Aug. 1, the current contract calls for pay increases of 60 cents an hour for trade workers and 52 cents an hour for production workers. It appears that GNP employees will be getting those increases.

Inexcon is a consulting and engineering firm specializing in creating processes for making paper. It was incorporated Dec. 3, 1996, and employs few people. It does not own any paper mills.

Bedard is its president and Joe Kass is chairman. The two men have more than 60 years experience working for various paper companies, primarily in Canada.

The company said it planned to spend between $75 million and $100 million to modernize both paper mills, which would include upgrading the No. 11 paper machine in Millinocket and the No. 5 paper machine in East Millinocket, along with other improvements during the next two years. Bedard expected the current 1,500 member work force to be reduced by 15 percent, or by 200 to 225 workers.

In recent months, Millinocket union members studied the possiblity of an employee buyout of the mill. That’s still possible, according to union members.

The relationship between the unions and the two companies has been tense lately.

“They [Inexcon and Bowater] appear to be arrogant, thinking they can intimidate with threats rather than convince with information,” said McTeague. “They seem to doubt that the people in these communities have the brains and the courage …. to make an informed, rational decision.”