AbitibiBowater pulp and paper mill workers in Eastern Canada approved a new collective agreement that will protect the pensions of retired workers, but includes wage reductions for the current workforce.
Workers voted 63 per cent in favour of the new collective agreement, which includes cost reductions for the company.
"Our members voted to protect retirees and pensions, and to bring this company out of bankruptcy protection," said CEP union’s national president Dave Coles in a news release issued Monday afternoon.
"However, I must emphasize that everything we have negotiated and ratified is now conditional on government approval in Quebec and Ontario."
The five-year deal would maintain current pensions. It would also include a new jointly managed pension plan with 10 per cent employer contributions for future service. The agreement also includes a 10 per cent wage reduction with increases resuming in 2012 and 2013.
Rick Zuback, president of CEP local 39, represents 284 workers at AbitibiBowater in Thunder Bay. He said he received news of the agreement just after lunchtime Monday.
He said the contract would mean a millwright making $32 an hour would lose more than $8,900 a year over the next four years.
The union president added that CEP members have done their part and it is now the government’s turn to change legislation in order to help pensioners.
"It’s a personal sacrifice," he said. "I’m not proud of the fact that we had to negotiate backwards or make concessions, but we recognized that it was necessity in order to protect the pensions of all present, past and future retirees of AbitibiBowater.
"It’s not just about protecting the mill, it’s about protecting the company."
The agreement covers about 3,000 CEP members in 18 local unions, which includes Thunder Bay Fort Frances and Iroquois Falls.
