Sappi Fine Paper and United Steelworkers Union Local 1069 have agreed to a new contract, ending four years of negotiations between the company and the union.
The union voted Tuesday in favor of ratifying a two-year labor agreement offered by Sappi on Aug. 15.
“It passed with a good majority, and now we’re ready to move on,” said Local 1069 President Brian Wade, who added that the resolution was a long time coming. “I don’t think (the protracted negotiations) worked out for anybody. Four years was no good.”
“Our goal throughout the negotiations was to reach new labor agreements that were fair and competitive, and we are pleased that we have been able to accomplish that,” Ronee Hagen, Sappi president and chief executive officer, said in a press release issued Wednesday morning.
After the vote, Wade reiterated that union members were not totally satisfied with some areas of the contract, but, he said, he was satisfied enough with the new agreement to move forward.
“There were a couple things they needed to change, and they did change them,” Wade said. “We’re hoping the company is going to treat us fairly the next time around and we won’t have to go through this long, drawn-out fight.”
Both the union and Sappi have confirmed the contract contains concessions by the company. While the company would not comment, Wade said the two concessions came in the areas of pensions and how the company pays its employees.
The concessions came after the two sides met in mid-July in Pittsburgh, Pa., where the Steelworkers union is headquartered. The company offered Local 1069 members a new agreement at a meeting held in Portland on Aug. 15.
The union has been without a contract since 2002, and negotiations have remained relatively stagnant until this year. In June, things came to a head when the union voted in favor of authorizing a strike after rejecting what Sappi called its final contract offer. The authorization gave union heads the power to strike if they saw fit, so long as they gave the company a 36-hour notice.
Following the strike authorization, tensions grew between the two sides when the company hired extra security at the mill, citing a need to protect its investment. Mill workers, however, viewed the extra security as an intimidation tactic, which the company denied.
While the union did not go on strike, neither side seemed to budge until renewed negotiations in mid-July led to the concessions and this latest contract offer by the company.
Sappi has also reached an agreement with workers at its Somerset Mill in Skowhegan for the next four years. The company is still in negotiations with employees at its two other mills in Cloquet, Minn. and Muskegon, Mich.
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