Mill, union reach deal

 
AbitibiBowater struck a tentative deal with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, which could move the newsprint giant closer to an exit from bankruptcy protection.

CEP officials announced Sunday that the union and company had reached a tentative labour agreement. If ratified, the union says the deal could save the pension plan and may even pull AbitibiBowater out of CCAA protection.

"We fixed the pension plan for our pensioners and our (members) in active service," said CEP vice-president Kim Ginter. "We’ve reached a tentative agreement with AbitibiBowater that will hopefully bring them out of CCAA."

With a potential deal in place, Ginter said the company now has to meet with provincial and federal government officials to try and have rules surrounding pension-plan funding relaxed.

"We just need the governments to come to the table now and give AbitibiBowater a pass on the rules," Ginter said, adding that the company is only interested in those rule changes and is not seeking money.

"We just want them to come to the table and make changes to the rules so we can move ahead. This is the only thing that we see that can save this company from bankruptcy."

Meanwhile, the union will organize ratification meetings for the tentative deal. There is no date set for those ratification meetings, but Ginter said CEP hopes to begin touring cities where AbitibiBowater has mills sometime in April.

The company and union made the tentative deal after AbitibiBowater scrapped a proposal to terminate pension plans.

Company spokesman Jean Philippe Cote confirmed the existence of the agreement, but said he could not confirm any of its details.

"It is important and essential in the context of the restructuring process that we do reach agreements with the union, so yesterday was certainly a notable achievement in that direction," Cote said.

AbitibiBowater has been operating under creditor protection in the U.S. and Canada since April.