BURNABY, B.C. – Ratification votes will be held over the next 10 days as United Steelworkers members at Canadian Forest Products (TSX:CFP) mills in the B.C. Interior consider a new contract.
The proposed five year pact ends five months of bargaining and union spokesman Bob Matters says it offers considerable gains for employees at the roughly one dozen Canfor mills in northern B.C. and several of the company’s operations in the southern Interior.
Specific details aren’t being released until after members have had a look, but a release from the Steelworkers says, along with a signing bonus, the contract includes significant pay increases for all workers, and cash payments in the third, fourth and fifth years.
It also offers improvements to health and welfare benefits and long-sought provisions to secure the pension plan.
Matters says the agreement will now be used as the pattern for negotiations with the remaining employers in the Interior.
Workers covered by the proposed deal have been without a contract since July 1st. (CHNL)
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