Global Sticks employees feeling pay pinch

Former Global Sticks employees say they were told they will be paid back most of the money owed to them.

Global Sticks filed for bankruptcy on July 26, laying off 80 workers in the process. Machine operator Tony Lacaria said they were told by management on July 26 there would be no wood the next day but that they would start up again on the following Monday.

When he and other employees went to pick up their pay cheques the next day, they saw the sign on the door that said the company filed for bankruptcy.

“They didn’t give us any warning,” Lacaria said.

Account trustees Grant Thornton told Lacaria and his fellow employees on Monday that they would receive most of the money owed to them.

Lacaria worked at Northern Wood from 1971 to 2008 and he said he had the same thing happen to him at that company.

“I was all pumped up to work here and retire here and this problem occurred again,” he said, adding he’s disappointed with what happened at Global Sticks.

Lacaria claims he is owed about $5,000, and former millwright assistant Steven Hurley said he is owed almost the same amount.

Hurley said he should get “good compensation” in about a month or so and said he thinks things will be alright, but he would have appreciated a heads up from the company.

“Just communicate better with your employees. Let them know what’s happening,” he said. “Nobody likes to get stuck without a job. As long as we’re given a heads up and you have time to prepare for it instead of an initial blow to the gut. That kind of hurt.”

Global Sticks has $750,000 in assets including its inventory, machinery, equipment and the plant in Oliver Paipoonge.

However, the company owes $15 million to various creditors including $4 million to the Northern Lights Credit Union in Dryden. It also owes the provincial and federal government millions.

The province has given the company $7 million in loans and grants.

Global sticks CEO Reggie Nukovic is owed $50,000.

 

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