Western Region FYI - May 18

This weeks edition of the Western Region FYI can be viewed here.

Western Region FYI - May 18

Court Rebuffs Forestry Giant

After tonight's General meeting, Steve Smith approached me with a newspaper clipping of the following article that he thought would be of interest to everyone. It is titled Court rebuffs forestry giant and the original can be found here. Here is what the article says:

Court rebuffs forestry giant

By Lynn Moore, Canwest News ServiceMay 5, 2009

Insolvent AbitibiBowater Inc. must abide by its collective labour agreement and allow its unionized workers early retirement with full benefits, a Quebec Superior Court Judge ruled yesterday.

The Montreal-based forestry giant's decision to unilaterally suspend a new provision of the collective agreement that improved its workers' pension plan is "illegal," Justice Clement Gascon said in a ruling.

"This ruling sends a clear message that collective agreements must be respected" during bankruptcy protection proceedings, Gaetan Menard, an executive with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, said.

During contract negotiations, Abitibi-Consolidated, which in 2007 merged with Bowater, signed an agreement with the CEPU that would allow employees with 20 years of service to retire at age 57, instead of age 58, with full pension benefits. It also increased slightly the company's pension-plan contributions.

For their part, workers agreed to contribute another one-half per cent of their salary to the pension plan from May 1.

The company,under bankruptcy protection in the U.S. and Canada, is not appealing Gascon's ruling.

AbitibiBowater, which argued in court that it could not afford the cost of the new provisions as it seeks to restructure, had already begun taking those extra deductions from its employees, the court heard last week.

"The term double standard comes to mind," Gascon told the court while giving his reasons for the ruling.

About 200 Abitibi workers had informed the company they wanted to take early retirement, as early as May 1, the court had heard. On April 27, their union was informed by an e-mail that the company was suspending the pension improvements and those workers had the option of returning to work.

© Copyright (c) The Province

General Meeting Reminder

Just a reminder that this month's General Meeting is on Tuesday, May 19 at 7:00 pm not on Monday as normal.

See you Tuesday night.

May Forward Look

The May edition of the Forward Look is online here. A print version will be available in the mill later this week.

Additionally, please note that the General Meeting is on Tuesday next week (May 19) not Monday as usual. This is due to Monday being Victoria Day.

Important: Shop Stewards Meeting Cancelled

Important Notice: The Shop Stewards scheduled for Monday, May 4 has been canceled. This is due to the need for an emergency Executive meeting to discuss some issues that cannot wait for the following week.

The emergency Executive meeting will be at 6:30 p.m.

Thank you to the Shop Stewards for your understanding in this matter.

In solidarity,

Tim (on behalf of the President)

April Forward Look

The April Forward Look is now online. You can view it here.

I spent some time preparing the print edition so that it looks better and that should be out tonight in the mill. The online edition this month is identical to the print edition, partly because I am out of time since I have to work night shift tonight and partly because we have several contributions this month. Since it is designed to be printed it will also look better if you want to print it out for your perusal.

I have stuck to the single column format since that does make it easier to read online (no scrolling back and forth).

As ever, your input is appreciated.

My wife just read it and noted a couple of mistakes (taking great glee in catching me in them) so they have been corrected in the online edition but not the print edition. My apologies.

Executive Meeting Change

Just a note for any Executive members that Jim has not been able to contact. The Executive meeting scheduled for Tuesday night has been postponed until Wednesday night at 6:00 PM due to the meeting in Vancouver on Tuesday.

Tim