“It’s basically ruining our lives” — Papermakers Organize to Fight Back Against Forced Overtime
Maine paper mills are increasingly forcing workers to work longer and longer and doing multiple shifts in a row to make up for a lack of staffing. The widespread use of forced overtime is not only a major workplace safety and public safety issue, it’s also taking a massive toll on workers and their families. Due to forced overtime, mill workers across the state say they are struggling to juggle childcare and rarely have enough time to spend with their families.
“It’s basically ruining our lives as of late because they can force you to work eighteen hours a day for five days straight and there’s no guard rail,” said Corey Pelletier, President of USW 365 at the Twin Rivers paper mill in Madawaska. “I tell my members that this company lives in Candyland. Good men and women have walked out that door due to constant forced overtime and the company does nothing to retain them. They basically hold the door open for them. It’s disgusting.”
Union leaders say it’s not uncommon for members to finish an 18-hour shift at 11pm and then be expected to come into the work at 5am the next day to work another 18-hour shift, followed by another.
Currently, the only way workers at the Madawaska mill can get time off is if they convince other employees to cover for them, so they are obligated to work overtime for other employees when they want to use earned time off. When a worker calls in sick and no one volunteers to cover that shift, the employee on the previous shift is forced to work a double shift.
After years of downsizing and layoffs to cut costs, union leaders say the paper industry has found that it’s more cost effective to force employees to work overtime and pay them time and a half than to spend the money to hire and train new workers. The local unions goal is to pressure companies to hire more people, to do better training and have enough staffing so workers are not forced to work endless amounts of overtime.
“Any overtime that they can squeeze out of us is just going to be more beneficial to the company, especially right now because of the hiring market,” said Josh Bernier, President of USW 1247 at the Twin Rivers mill. “They’ve completely destroyed their reputation in the local community up here so trying to attract anyone within a 30-mile radius is challenging.”
Pelletier said that even after mill closures at Millinocket, Lincoln, Bucksport and Madison, none of those workers went to work in Madawaska because it’s so far away from the rest of Maine. He added that morale has gotten so bad in the mill that younger members are quitting left and right because the excessive overtime is negatively impacting their family life.
“Young guys age 40 and under just can’t take it anymore. I’ve got people who have given their whole lives to this place and when they refuse overtime the company just says ‘you have to,’” said Pelletier. “I’ve got a single father in the maintenance department who told me point blank that he can’t continue this. He’s got three teenage sons and he never knows when he’s going to leave the mill. It’s awful. The company doesn’t give two shits about anybody’s life on the outside.”
In one instance, a USW member in Madawaska named Sue was forced to work overtime while her mother was on her deathbed because management refused to let her be by her side during her last moments.
“Someone had been secured to replace her for the shift, but management decided to use her in a different area of the mill outside of her classification so she reported to her shift of mandatory overtime because she was told that she had to do it,” said Bernier.
About an hour and a half into Sue’s shift, her mother died surrounded by the rest of her family.
USW leaders at other mills say their members are also being burned out by forced overtime.
“We miss Christmases, holidays with our families, sporting events, chorus and dance recitals, you name it. We had a member who nearly missed his own wedding,” said John Perry IV, President of USW 900 at the Nine Dragons mill in Rumford. "It’s causing a lot of stress for my members in their home lives. It has become such a problem that it seems like these companies own us.”
Perry noted that the recent sentencing of a Maine corrections officer who worked consecutive 16-hour shifts before causing a crash that killed a 9-year-old girl should serve as a cautionary warning of the dangers of these excessive overtime policies.
“We really need to do everything we can do to push these companies to put people before profits,” said Perry.
USW locals are working with the Maine AFL-CIO to explore ways to address this issue at the bargaining table and in the Legislature. Stay tuned for more updates!