Elk Falls Workers

Catalyst Files for Creditor Protection…

Ian — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:12:01 +0000

Jan 31, 2012 – Catalyst anounced today that to facilitate an orderly restructuring of its business and operations, they were filing for an Initial Order from the Supreme Court of British Columbia to commence proceedings under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). The terms and conditions of the restructuring plan have not yet been determined by the company.

Catalyst had been working on a plan to retructure it’s debt. There were several conditions of that plan that needed to be met before Jan 31st. Unfortunately they came up short on two of those conditions

(a) a new labour agreement ratified by all six union locals at the company’s BC mills and
(b) two-thirds support of all 2014 and 2016 bondholders.

The CEP is retaining legal council to represent the interests of both past and current members at the CCAA proceedings.
Along with all the 1123/630 retirees, there are still many members on LTDI benefits from Catalyst, and I appreciate that they all have questions about how they could be impacted by this news.

Health & Welfare Benefits, Bridging, and Pension top-ups are just a few of the several areas of concern that people have been calling about, but at this time we are unsure of the answers. As we find out more information, I will ensure its posted here. Feel free to post any questions you may have, even though we don’t currently have answers, your questions could help us identify other issues that we aren’t even aware exist.

Another arbitration

Dan — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:35:21 +0000

The local had another arbitration yesterday. This one is about members that severed when over the age of 55 years old and aren’t getting retiree benefits or bridging at 60 years old. Like the last one we now await the decision. Hopefully in the next month or two.

I know how frustrating it has been for the retired members that have waited so long for an answer to these grievances.

Hard to believe how much time has gone by since the closure. Hopefully everyone’s lives are going well.

Arbitration for disability pay updates

Dan — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:36:39 +0000

The local was in Vancouver last week for an arbitration about disability pay. The company has refused to provide the negotiated updates for members that were off on long term disability prior to Dec 2008, that’s when we signed the current collective agreement.We believe the updated language applied to all members not just the ones that went off on disability after the agreement was signed.

The arbitration seemed to go well so now we wait for a decision.

Service Canada to review allocation of grievance award money…

Ian — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:20:46 +0000

A past member stopped by this morning to tell us that he had been informed by Service Canada that they are going to do a review of how they reallocated the monies that some Elk Falls people received from Catalyst late last year.

The money was, for the most part, to compensate people for the Company’s decision to pay out earned time off at base rate. People expected it to be considered an adjustment to moneys already earned (and claimed for E/I purposes) , But Service Canada took the position that it was money earned for additional hours and this meant people were in some cases asked to repay E/I money they had received.

I have no idea how long it will take them to review, but it is potentially good news for those who had to repay part of their E/I money.

Ian

Special Assessment Fund to return monies to contributors…

Ian — Mon, 02 May 2011 17:12:47 +0000

The remainder of monies set aside for supplemental strike pay and health and welfare coverage, to assist any Locals that ended up in a labour dispute , is being returned to the Local for redistribution to those of you that contributed. Finally….

That’s the good news…

Unfortunately, since Elk Falls shut down, many of you have relocated and while we have received a number of forwarding addresses, many of you haven’t sent them in. We will be preparing cheques over the next couple of weeks, and for those that actually want to receive the money in a timely manner, this gives you time to get us your new address before we start mailing things out.

You can call the office – (250) 286-6239
Email us at : cep1123@telus.net
or you can reply to this post (we won’t be publishing any responses)

Celebration of Life for Joe Young…

Ian — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:48:40 +0000

We are sad to inform everyone that retiree Joe Young recently passed away. Joe was an Ocean Falls transferee that came to Elk Falls in 1972. His job was millwrighting, but Joe was also a past President and long time executive member of Local 1123. For me, he was one of “the characters” that made going to work such an enjoyable experience. He never changed after retirement, and it was always a pleasure to chat and laugh with him whenever the opportunity arose.

There will be a Celebration of Life at the Elk Hall in Campbell River this Saturday (May 14) from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

Employment Opportunity at Catalyst

Dan — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:12:46 +0000

Catalyst has an ad out looking for entry level operation positions at their Powell River division.

Here is a link to the ad if anyone is interested.

Operations Employment Opportunity and Application Process

Elk Falls Auction

Dan — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:40:00 +0000

The company has put all the equipment at Elk Falls on the Maynards Auction site now as many former employees have pointed out to me. I knew this day would come, but it still amazes me that someone would liquidate an asset as valuable as that site just to stop competition for customers and fiber. It also amazes me that we still have a government that has made absolutely no effort to stop the loss of forestry jobs while our wood gets cut down and shipped past all the empty mill sites to some other country to create jobs.
Hopefully this will mean at some point they will be willing to let some one else come in and use the site for business other than Pulp and Paper. There are still lots of great advantages to the site like a sewer treatment plant, fresh water license and pipeline, a deep sea port, a hydro substation and numerous shops and warehouses. It would sure be nice to see some jobs come into the town instead of them leaving.

Update on Earned Time Off Grievance

Ian — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:58:35 +0000

Dec 9th update – We were informed by the Company that today they would be paying out the monies owed to individuals who had ETO wrongly paid out at base rate. For people whom they have banking information on file, the money will be deposited directly into your account -and for those who have been removed from their system, they will be sending out cheques to the last address they had on file.
People who can’t understand how they arrived at the amount they did, should contact the company and request more information or a printed breakdown. Phone: 250-734-8024

If you are unsuccessful at that or unsatisfied with the explanation, contact our office and we will go over it with you.

Back Pay for Earned Time Off – The Company has informed us that it is taking significantly longer than they anticipated to calculate the amounts still owing for time off taken since peoples’ card rate was unilaterally changed to base rate.
The Company now believes they will have all the calculations done and money paid out by the end of the year.
PS – I’m just the messenger

Strike Fund – At the last wage caucus meeting held in October, delegates maintained the position that no further money would be returned from the regional strike fund until there was a resolve to Local 1129 (the last Local) negotiations. People felt that it was inappropriate to wind up the fund while there is still the one Local trying to achieve the pattern.

For anyone that has moved – make sure that the Local has your new address so when monies are returned to the Local, we can send them to the right place.

Ian

Paper Excellence Still Hunting for Pulpmills…

Ian — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:48:21 +0000

CEP Local 1120 and Paper Excellence Reach Agreement

We are pleased to inform you that we have reached an agreement with the new owners of the pulp mill in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. After a respectful and forward looking set of negotiations between CEP Local 1120 and Paper Excellence the members have voted 97% in favour of a new agreement.

This is a critical next step in the process of potentially reopening the pulp operations that were shut down 5 years ago. The new owners, Paper Excellence, have yet to conclude the final deal with both the Saskatchewan government and Domtar. However, we are very optimistic that this will successfully be concluded by the end of November. If so, it is the intention of Paper Excellence to have the restarted operation selling product by the fall of 2011.

The purchase of the shuttered mill came together at literally the final hour as Domtar had let contracts for the completion of the demolition of the last of the pulp equipment. It is our understanding that Domtar still has the final demolition slated to begin in the first week of December. Although much of the mill has already been dismantled Paper Excellence believes that with the investment of $100 million in equipment replacement and upgrading they will be able to produce pulp with an operating cost of $450 a tonne or less. When the mill closed in late 2005 it produced pulp at approximately $525 a tonne.

The members will see wages that will start at about 4% below the pulp and paper pattern in Western Canada and without having banked time provisions or supplementary vacations. With the exception of the above mentioned items the collective agreement will have equal or superior benefits to what our members enjoyed prior to closure. In an effort to recruit skilled labour back to the operations members will see their seniority honoured for recall and vacation entitlement even though all members received severance pay.

The new agreement will be for a 5 year term with an annual wage increase of 2% with a bonus system put in place that would kick in if the operations meets or beats the targeted production costs.