CEP 1403
Press Release

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada

January 23, 2006

CEP workers at The Tolko kraft paper mill in The Pas yesterday voted 95% in favour of accepting a wage rollback on the recommendation of the executive of Local 1403.

Intense bargaining over the weekend gave the workers concrete guarantees on issues related to non-closure of the mill and government involvement in the proposed profit share plan. With the involvement of Premier Gary Doer and provincially-appointed mediator Vince Ready the executive was able to receive the information necessary to enable the executive to change its recommendation and allow the membership to have as much information as possible prior to voting on Saturday night and Sunday.

These issues were of great importance to our membership and because of non-disclosure clauses in the $7-million commercial agreement between the Government and Tolko, the only way to get this information was through the mediation process.

The Local wishes to thank Premier Gary Doer for his help in achieving a deal that will benefit the workers and the people of The Pas. Local 1403 was brought into this process two months later than the other stake holders and we were given approximately four days to agree to a three-year wage reduction that amounted to approximately $9,000,000.
 
With the exception of a couple of our town leaders there is not a business person in town who would agree to a deal like this without all the information or the necessary time to get that information.  Local 1403 followed its democratic process and ensured the members were given all the information available.

This Local has never bargained through the media and we certainly have never done the mud slinging that has taken place in the past few days. We are sorely disappointed with the panic and fears caused by Mayor Hopper and believe he should have had faith in us and our process.  Mayor Hopper was fully informed on our discussions which had taken place between Local 1403 and Tolko - including the fact that we had given Tolko our word we would find them the $3 million annual savings up to and including rollbacks.

CEP Local 1403 represents 277 paper workers at Tolko.  The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada represents 162,000 workers across Canada in paper, energy, telecommunications, media and commercial printing.

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For more information, contact:  Kevin Armstrong, President, Local 1403, (204) 623-5764