New contract for P.A. mill workers but restart date still unknown

Paper Excellence was thought to be involved in discussions with the province regarding turning part of the plant into a clean energy producer.

‘Competitive contract’: union

Staff explained the new collective agreement was bargained in the fall and the company had to do its due diligence to make sure it was something they wanted.

“We were not happy with the past contract and neither was Paper Excellence, so we sat down and negotiated a new contract,” he said.

…there would be good decent jobs that people can raise their family on _{– Vincent Lukacs, Unifor}

Staff would not reveal specifics but said the terms of the new deal would mean “the jobs will come back to Prince Albert. It’s very competitive with the industry; standardized with the industry across the west coast.”

He added those 185 people on the recall list would be getting a phone call from Paper Excellence “when the time comes to see what jobs are going to be out there.”

Staff, like many of the more than 700 people who lost their jobs when the mill closed in 2006, found other employment locally or further afield and he still manages local union affairs. He added other former colleagues still called Prince Albert home but were commuting to Alberta and elsewhere for work. If and when the mill re-opened, those people on the recall list would then have a decision to make.

“If they have other jobs, they’re going to have to make a decision on whether to come [back] to the mill or not.”

Unifor’s Director of Forestry Vincent Lukacs – who was part of the contract negotiations – was keen to stress there were other factors the company had to deal with to make the mill a reality again but, if it did indeed re-open, “there would be good decent jobs that people can raise their family on.”

He added there would be additional employment to the 185 positions through secondary industries supporting the mill. And Lukacs agreed the company would likely not have gone to the trouble of negotiating a new contact if they weren’t serious about the future.

“They wouldn’t be going through this effort if they didn’t at least have the intention of [restarting],” he said.

Owners give no indication for re-opening date

paNOW reached out to Paper Excellence last week ahead of the union vote. In a short email, the company said “we continue to assess the long term restart of the mill but there are currently no firm plans that relate to any date at this time.”

Paper Excellence acquired the mill in 2011 and has a non-compete clause regarding pulp production with the former owners to March 2021. In July 2018, they told paNOW they were in an early evaluation phase regarding a business case for pulp and clean energy production. A year ago they were unable to give a date by which the mill could re-open, but Staff told paNOW the company would need to be ordering key components regarding the lead-up time to get ready to generate green power.

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow

by Glenn Hicks

New contract for P.A. mill workers but restart date still unknown

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