Union decides not to vote on Catalyst Paper's proposal

Union officials from the CEP have presented a detailed version of Catalyst Paper's proposal to its Elk Falls members on Wednesday night.

After examining the details, the union members decided they didn't even want to vote on the proposal.

"The membership has absolutely no appetite to even vote on this agreement," said CEP Local 1123 president Ian Simpson. "We went through the company's proposal in detail. They saw what it was. They understand it isn't a proposal about starting Elk Falls. It's a proposal about gutting our collective agreement and intimidating and pressuring the other locals in the Catalyst group to do the same with theirs."

Catalyst Paper has said it is ready to restart the Elk Falls mill by September, but only with concessions from the workers. Now, the company said it won't even bother with further talks until next spring.

"My members definitely don't want anything to do with this package," CEP Local 630 president Ron Johnson said. "They still think there's something down the road maybe we can deal with to start up Elk Falls, but as time goes on more and more of them see (the proposal) is not really about starting up Elk Falls. It's about trying to gut the agreement we have now and force it through the other Catalyst mills."

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Union won't vote on Catalyst proposal (Courier-Islander)