Workers and community deserve better from Norampac mill: union

TRENTON, ON, April 12, 2012 /CNW/ - Canada's largest forestry union is calling on Norampac to stop "job blackmail and work with the union to save jobs and protect the local economy."

The reaction comes after Cascades issued a news release today announcing the planned closure of its Norampac-Trenton mill, while in the middle of contract negotiations with the union.

Most of the 130 workers at the company's Trenton mill are members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. They voted yesterday to reject the employer's contract offer, which contained "unacceptable concessions," says Dave Moffat, CEP Administrative Vice-President, Ontario.

"We have been trying to negotiate with the company for the past year," explains Moffat. "It's been a complicated bargaining session, but we had hoped to continue working within the collective bargaining process, and not negotiate through the media."

"Norampac employees, who have worked to build this mill up over the past decades, deserve better than this," says Moffat, noting that the closure would also jeopardize dozens of spin-off jobs in the community.

"We would like the company to stop the job blackmail and work with us to save jobs and protect the local economy."

CEP is Canada's largest union in several key sectors of the Canadian economy, including forestry, energy, telecommunications and media.

Dave Moffat [phone]