Russ Horner Resigns

In case you haven't heard:

From Catalyst's Daily Digest:

Catalyst board accepts executive resignations, search for successors underway

The company issued the following news release today:

Catalyst Paper’s board of directors today announced that it has accepted the resignations of two executives who have elected to exercise change of control agreements.

Russ Horner, president and chief executive officer, and Ralph Leverton, vice-president, finance and chief financial officer, have tendered their resignations. An executive search is underway to identify their successors and both executives have agreed to remain with the company to the end of the next annual meeting of shareholders, to be held on March 28, 2007, or the appointment of successors or interim successors, to assist in the transition.

"Russ stabilized the operational and financial performance of our company during a challenging period of industry restructuring and consolidation," said board chairman Keith Purchase. "At the same time, Ralph led the cost management and capital refinancing of the business to significantly improve the balance sheet during a protracted downturn in this cyclical sector.

"We appreciate their loyalty, dedication and willingness to facilitate a smooth transition as the board completes its selection of new executives who will build on the fundamental strengths of the business."

Russ worked for Catalyst and its predecessor companies for more than 30 years. Prior to his appointment to lead Catalyst Paper, he served as chief operating officer, Australasia for Fletcher Challenge Paper, president and chief operating officer of Fletcher Challenge Canada and president and chief executive officer of Norske Skog Canada. In 2001, he guided the merger of Norske Skog Canada and Pacifica Papers to create NorskeCanada, which was renamed Catalyst Paper in 2005.

During Russ’s tenure, Catalyst Paper set new benchmarks for safety, and community and environmental group relations in British Columbia.

Ralph joined Catalyst in 1999 after holding executive positions at Pope & Talbot and Harmac Pacific and a variety of financial positions with MacMillan Bloedel.

The recent acquisition by Third Avenue Management LLC of an additional 39 million common shares of Catalyst on behalf of various client accounts, exceeding a 25 per cent threshold established under the executives’ agreements with Catalyst, constituted a change of control under such agreements. Under the terms of the control change agreement, Russ and Ralph are entitled to receive change of control and pension benefits totalling $4,779,865 and $1,582,546, respectively, on the date that their employment ends.

And from Russ himself:

January 15, 2007

We’ve come a long way – now it’s time to pass the baton

Earlier today, our board of directors announced that it had accepted my resignation as president and chief executive officer and Ralph Leverton’s resignation as vice-president, finance and chief financial officer.

The board is looking for successors, and Ralph and I have agreed to stay with the company until the annual general meeting this March, or the appointment of successors or interim successors, to make sure the transition to new leadership is smooth.

The recent changes in board and ownership structure make this an appropriate time to make a transition in executive leadership as well. I know this announcement may take some of you by surprise. The fact is that change at the top is a reality for most corporations.

It has been my privilege to work with you and to lead our company as president and CEO for the past several years. I have been in this industry for more than 30 years, and the last few years have been some of the most interesting and demanding as we moved through a period of extensive restructuring and consolidation.

I would like to take a moment to recognize the lasting contribution Ralph has made since joining the company in 1999. During his tenure he brought focus to our balance sheet and guided our financial restructuring through mergers, acquisitions as well as timely and cost-saving debt refinancing. He also greatly improved the transparency and depth of our disclosure reporting and has been my partner through many complex and challenging developments.

At times like this, it’s natural for employees to wonder what the future will hold. Those who know me best will appreciate that I have made a habit of dealing in facts rather than speculation, so I would say the best thing to do is to stay focused on safety, quality and performance. This is what we’re known for at Catalyst and how ongoing value can be created for customers and shareholders.

When I became this company’s president I committed to guiding it through the initial phases of restructuring – improving efficiency, reducing costs and moving up the product value curve. Reaching our rightful place as a leader in our sector reflects what all of you have done. We’ve made great progress, much of it thanks to your energy and enthusiasm, and I have every confidence that new leadership will continue to build on the performance culture that is now in place.

Russ Horner

President and CEO

Merry Christmas!

I just would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas. I hope you enjoy time with family and friends and that next year will be a good one for you.

I have a more in depth post over on my Viewpoint blog if you haven't already checked it out.

Happy Holidays!

Tim

View From Labour Article

Following is a copy of the recent View From Labour Article that Jim VanDusen submitted and that was published in the AV Times recently. Clicking on the link above will give you a PDF version of the article.


Catalyst demands concessions from Port Alberni Division

In September the CEP Local 592 Wage Delegates met with representatives from the Senior Management group of Catalyst Paper regarding the CTMP project and the Yellow Book (a new Directory customer) agreement.

Ron Buchhorn, Senior Vice President of Operations, began by saying they have signed a tentative deal with Yellow Book but without commitments from both locals and the city they are not prepared to invest in our mill. For us to get the major investment needed for this project they stated that they need concessions from both locals and get a commitment on city taxes. The concessions they were demanding included both local items and Main Wage items. Main Wage items being those that are included in the main body of our Collective Agreement and are part of the Pattern settlement negotiated during the last round of negotiations.

They made it abundantly clear that if a deal was not reached they will run the Yellow Book order in Crofton and they would not be asking anything from them to do so. If this happens then they will eventually shut down # 4 Paper Machine and run # 5 Paper Machine only. This would result in a further lay off of approximately 200 more members.

The Wage Delegates from Local 592 and 686 and the Presidents from the other Catalyst locals met with Ron Buchhorn and Russell Horner, President & Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst. Russell Horner confirmed that their Board of Directors were fully aware of the concessions and they must have them before they will invest any Capital in our mill. He attempted to justify the need for these by talking about the concessions given up in Port Alice, Bowater and Maramachi.

Unlike these other mills Catalyst is not seeking concessions due to financial hardship. They will receive a full return on their investment of $25 million within 2 ½ years. They will be the lowest cost producer of Directory paper in North America and earn approximately $170 per tonne more than they currently do at our mill. This represents about $21 million per year above their present earnings and they still want concessions from the unions and the city.

In an attempt to get an agreement we presented them alternatives that would give them more value than the combined list of concessions they said was required for a less than 2-year payback. We also offered them many ways to improve the efficiency of our Paper Machines, reduce costs and be competitive moving forward. After all we thought that was the goal.
The company did not address anything that we brought forward. They once again read us their entire list of concessionary demands and told us it was all or nothing.

In my opinion the manner in which Catalyst Paper chose to handle this lacked integrity and absolute disrespect for the union. There is no doubt in my mind that the best business case is to put both the project and Yellow Book here in Port Alberni. Their goal of becoming the lowest cost producer of Directory Paper can be obtained without any concessions at all.

The company’s imposed deadline of November 17th has passed and the company announced that because we were unable to reach a deal with the unions Catalyst would not be going ahead with the 25 million dollar capital investment in Port Alberni. It will be business as usual and it will be necessary to reduce costs to continue running # 4 Paper Machine.

Their statement that they were unable to reach a deal with the unions is absolutely ludicrous. That statement implies that both parties actually attempted to negotiate some kind of agreement. Right from the beginning this company never had any intention on accepting anything other than their complete list of concessions.

We were informed that this is the new way they intend on doing business within their company and before any locals get any Capital Investment they will receive a list of demands. However, I found it very interesting that when Powell River was recently presented with their list of concessionary demands their management group chose to include only local items and did not ask for any Main Wage items. It is early in the process but it appears that they are going to sit down and talk with the unions rather than take the, do it or else, approach that we were given. I am not sure why they are dealing with them so much differently, but maybe they actually want to resolve their issues and not just demand concessions, time will tell.

This is certainly not the same company we worked together with to achieve an unprecedented early negotiation a few short years ago. We agreed to an early negotiation because we were assured that if we gave them the comfort of a 5-year deal we would get a no concession agreement. They got the comfort for their customers and we are only in the 3rd year of a five-year deal and they are coming after concessions from our Collective Agreement.

I was foolishly optimistic but I believed that if both the union and the company had the same goal then we could work together and come up with something we could all agree to. But the way this has unfolded I can only conclude that either they never had any intention on investing here or it was always just about getting concessions from the unions.

Last month Russell Horner sent Mayor McRae a letter declining the city’s generous offer of a tax reduction worth about $1.5 million over 5 years stating it was helpful but it stops far short of achieving competitive parity.

I will conclude with a quote from our CEP Western Region Vice President, Don MacNeil that sums it up quite nicely. “We are sure wondering what game Catalyst is playing.” “They talk about investing money to improve operations and increase profits but for some reason they are still demanding concessions from our members in Port Alberni rather than just simply going ahead with this lucrative investment. If they think for one minute that they are going to get concessions from our members just to improve profits for shareholders, they have another thing coming.”

Jim VanDusen

December Forward Look

Here is the link for the December Forward Look.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you have some dear friends and family to spend the season with.

Be safe and have a great time.

November Forward Look

It took some time but I did get the Forward Look file and converted it to a PDF (thanks to this nifty little free program and the link is posted below. The monthly Forward Look is compiled by a combination of MS Publisher and the old, literal cut and paste method to fill in some of the spaces. Linda Sorensen does the Publisher stuff and Randy Teichman finishes it up by inserting extra material that isn't easily entered into the computer. The end result is that what you will see here is only what is typed in to Publisher so the added material in the printed edition will not be in this PDF.

It's an experiment. Let me know if it is worthwhile or not.

So here is the November Forward Look. If you have any problems just leave a comment and I'll look into it.

Elections For DSB Rep

The meeting notices for December are already up, but there is an additional piece of business that will happen at the General Meeting on December 18th. There will be nominations for 1 DSB rep with the election following the nomination at the meeting. If you are interested, make sure you attend the meeting.

Core Saw Arbitration

Jim VanDusen has asked me to post the dates for the upcoming arbitration on the Core saw jobs. This arbitration will be held December 11th in Nanaimo. One additional day is needed but this date has not been set. It could be prior to the 11th or after the 11th.

UPDATE: The Executive meeting has been postponed until December 13th because of the arbitration so I believe it will be held on the 11th and 12th.