About 150 sawmill workers join CEP

About 150 AbitibiBowater employees at the Thunder Bay sawmill are now members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. 

A majority of the mill’s maintenance and production workers voted in support of joining the union Friday.

An application for certification was submitted at the Ontario Labour Relations Board on Aug. 5 after a six-month organizing drive by CEP.

CEP national representative Stephen Boone stated in a press release that the mill, located on the Fort William First Nation, is one of the most modern sawmills in Eastern Canada and they are pleased to welcome this new group of skilled forestry workers into CEP.

“We will be spending the next few months helping them get established in their new CEP local and preparing to negotiation a new first agreement with AbitibiBowater,” he said.

CEP already represents most of AbitibiBowater’s pulp and paper operations in Thunder Bay and almost 80 per cent of their employees in eastern Canada.