Displaying items by tag: pension

CEP members at Fraser Papers' Edmundston mill have voted 69.3% to ratify an agreement to change the pension plan and complete the conditions required for the company to restructure and emerge from bankruptcy protection.

"This was a very difficult decision for our members but it was the least of two evils," said CEP Atlantic Vice-President Ervan Cronk, following ratification meetings held over the weekend.

"Bargaining into the wee hours of the morning, we were able to lessen the blow on pensioners and active employees," said Cronk. "The result is that they will realize about 10% more of what they would otherwise have been entitled to.

"But we have made it very clear to the company that we will be back to fight another day to restore pensions.

"Goverments must not be allowed to sit back on their heels while companies use bankruptcy protection laws to shed millions of dollars in debt on the backs of pensioners." "We have turned a page at Fraser Papers but we will continue the fight for justice," added CEP National President Dave Coles.

"The struggle at Fraser Papers revealed everything that is wrong with a system that allows companies like Brookfield Asset Management to make pensioners and workers the victims of restructuring."

The agreement at Fraser Papers will see an 8-year extension of Fraser's insolvent pension plan. This will require legislative changes by the New Brunswick government.

After arduous negotiations, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) has agreed to a tentative agreement with AbitibiBowater to renew the collective agreement. This deal fulfills an essential condition towards the emergence of the company from the current restructuring process.

"We have the best possible agreement, given the precarious financial condition of the company", says CEP President Dave Coles. "We are proud to have been able to protect retirees and to have created a new stable pension plan for the active workers. Our members will no longer have to fear the shadow of an insolvency of their plan".

The company took off the table its proposal to terminate the pension plans, which would have reduced pension benefits by an average of 25%. Provincial government will now bear the responsibility to adopt the appropriate regulatory changes to allow the company to financially fix the pension plans.

However, the union is furious at the total lack of help shown by the Conservative government to the forestry workers. "It is our members who had to make sacrifices to save the company from bankruptcy", says Dave Coles. "The last federal budget fully demonstrated the contempt of this government for forestry workers. It is now clear for our workers, our retirees and our communities that the Conservatives have abandoned them".

This agreement covers about 4,500 workers and 8,000 retirees from 23 AbitibiBowater locals at 12 pulp and paper mills in Eastern Canada.