Bowater workers narrowly approve job cuts
Posted Nov 17, 2011 05:05:41 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Unionized workers at the Bowater Mersey paper mill in Queens County have voted to accept a concessions package that includes cutting the workforce in half.
In total, 51.7 per cent of those who cast a ballot last night voted in favour of negotiating a new collective agreement with the
company.
It means 110 full- and part-time employees at the mill in Brooklyn are going to lose their jobs.
The cuts are expected to make the plant more financially viable but there’s no guarantee that it will remain open.
“It leaves the road open to continue moving forward with working with the province to create a package that will be acceptable to the Resolute Forest Products board when it meets in December to effectively keep the plant operating until after the first of January,” Queens County Mayor John Leefe told News 95.7.
Union president Courtney Wentzell was clearly dejected and emotional as he delivered the news to a handful of his co-workers and union members at the union hall in Brooklyn.
Liverpool residents told Global News the job cuts will have an impact throughout the town and surrounding area.
“We’re having businesses close left, right and centre,” one woman told Global News. “Some of them it’s because they want too, but a lot of it is because there is not enough money in our town.”
An estimated 90 percent of the mill workers cast a ballot in last night’s vote, giving union officials a clear mandate.
“It would have been disappointing if you’d only had, say 60 or 70 per cent of your membership turn out for something so important,” said union trustee Kevin Evans. “We had well over 90 per cent turnout. It is a true representation.”
Premier Darrell Dexter has said that mill owner Resolute Forest Products Inc. was open to reconsidering a plan to close the operation if it could get concessions from its workers.
He said the mill also needs to cut production costs from suppliers, as well as reduce power rates.
The province estimates that up to 2,000 people in the surrounding area would be affected if the mill closes.
