Fibre reaches tentative settlement with union
Saturday, July 22, 2006 12:11 AM PDT
By Andre Stepankowsky
Printable version
E-mail this articleLongview Fibre Co. and its pulp and paper workers Friday reached a tentative labor contract, and union members will vote on the pact next week.
Neither side would disclose terms of the contract --- not even its length.
The agreement was announced just two days after Fibre said that it would consider buyout offers and less than two weeks after the company proposed major concessions in the union's health care benefits.
The potential of a sale --- and the possibility that any new owner could curtail mill operations and cut employment --- had no bearing on the negotiations, said Greg Pallesen, vice president of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Works union in Portland.
He declined to say whether the union bargaining team is recommending approval or rejection. A vote will be next week but had not been set by Friday afternoon, he said.
AWPPW 153 represents 1,250 hourly workers at Fibre, which is the county's second-largest employer.
Fibre spokesman Curt Copenhagen said Friday that the company had no comment on the report of a tentative contract agreement.
Under its initial contract offer, Fibre had offered only a single 2 percent raise over the next four years. It also had proposed phasing out health care coverage for new retirees and stepping up workers' contribution to health care premiums to 25 percent by 2010. Monthly contributions now are capped at $50.
The health care proposal had potential to cost workers thousands of extra dollars a year.
Fibre, on the other hand, is under pressure to keep costs down because its pulp and paper operations have been steady money losers.
Asked how negotiators could reach an agreement so quickly, Pallesen said, ... " Both sides wanted to get it done. There was movement on the company's proposal, and the bargaining board wants to bring it back to the membership to see what they think of it."
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