Retirement Packages

We have been informed that the Catalyst Board Meeting will be held on January 16th and hopefully we will have the agreement signed off by the board shortly after. Due to the meeting date being so late in January, we have adjusted some of the implementation dates. They are as follows:

• you must be 55 on or before Dec. 31st 2007
• you must indicate your intention to retire before Feb. 29th 2008
• you will retire on or before March 31st 2008.

Once we have the list of potential retirees on Feb. 29th, then we will be able to determine what severance packages may look like.

From the President

As most of you should be aware, the Western Region Pulp & Paper Caucus has directed the National to put Local 592 into trusteeship. I'm not going to revisit or debate all of the issues that have got us to this point but it has been over 2 weeks since Dave Coles has received this request and we are still waiting and wondering just what the hell the future holds for us. Also our status in Caucus is still in question. Our National Rep seems to think that we totally withdrew from Caucus and the re-edited minutes from that meeting seem to support his argument. Unfortunately I don't think we will get much in the way of support from most of the other locals in caucus at this point but we are going to deal with this issue regardless of what the eventual outcome may be. All that we can ask our membership to do is just wait it out once more. Following is the letter sent by the Western Region Vice President Don MacNeil to President Coles. In the mean time it is business as usual and we will continue with all of our efforts to implement the new agreement and get #4 PM up and running in the spring.

Pete Rayburn

December 14, 2007


Dave Coles, National President
CEP
301 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario
K1P 6M6


Dear President Coles:

As per a request from Administrative Vice President Don Boucher on behalf of the Western Region Pulp Caucus I am asking that the National Union make a determination to invoke the CEP Constitution, under Article 12.03.01 and place CEP Local 592 under trusteeship.

We very much appreciate the significance of this request and its potential impact on the rest of the union. However, it is the position of our Caucus that the actions of CEP Local 592 will have an overwhelmingly negative impact on their members, our members who work in other Catalyst mills and indeed, all of our members who work in pulp, paper and converting facilities.

Our members are extremely distressed that CEP Local 592 chose to ignore the second request of the National President to defer voting on this agreement until such time that a new pattern agreement could be reached. Our Caucus maintains that caucus solidarity and commitment to the union as a whole is fundamental in the success of our Caucus, and further, a potential national caucus.

We believe that time is of the essence. I urge you to bring your immediate attention to this serious and significant matter.

In solidarity,





Don MacNeil
Vice President, Western Region

Cc: CEP Western Region Pulp Caucus members
CEP Western Region National Staff Reps, Pulp

December Forward Look

The December Forward Look is now available online. Click here to download.

Referendum Results

The results for the referendum on the proposed agreement are 58% in favour. I would like to thank the membership for your patience for the last 5 months. Now its time to get to work and make a future for our mill.

Pete Rayburn
Daryl De Rooy
Phil Guild