More than a Thousand USW Workers in Central Maine Get Organized and Prepared for Contract Negotiations
PHOTO: USW 4-9 members rally for a fair contract in 2022.
About 470 USW 449 members at the Huhtamaki mill in Waterville and over 500 USW 4-9 members at the Sappi mill in Skowhegan are getting organized and preparing for contract negotiations this summer. USW’s contract with Sappi contract expires at the end of August and Huhtamaki’s expires in mid September.
“Both facilities have their own unique issues coming into these negotiations and there are going to be some challenges,” said USW Labor Rep, Mike Higgins.
Bargaining at Sappi Skowhegan
At Sappi, Local 4-9 is finishing up a three-year contract that was ratified in 2022 after workers nearly went on strike. While the contract contained the strongest economic package for members since Sappi purchased the mill in1995, members aren’t happy that they have had fight for their full $2 wage adjustment promised in that contract. The raise was supposed to be done in two increments, one dollar when the contract was ratified and another after workers took on additional duties, many of which they were already doing.
However, as Local 4-9 President Justin Shaw explains, there was an understanding that workers likely wouldn’t be able to take on all the duties in that timeframe because they were five years behind on their training. That’s why the contract language states that if it took longer than a year to have all the duties in place, the one dollar raise would still be implemented and work would continue to get those added duties in place. Nevertheless, the company held off on giving the workers the additional dollar raise, so the union took it to arbitration.
“The company has since given us the second dollar, but they gave it to us well over a year later, so we’ve got all this backpay that’s hanging on this arbitration,” said Shaw. “The fact is, people are upset that the company did this to us, so it’s going to be an interesting negotiation.”
Shaw said that the company typically likes to delay until the contract is several months past its expiration, so it can threaten to take away retroactive pay if the workers don’t agree to its terms. That’s why the union insisted in the last contract to start bargaining this June. Anticipating some tough negotiations, Local 4-9 has already begun organizing trainings using USW’s Strategic Campaigns program. It has plans for future solidarity actions and barbecues at the union hall.
Shaw says he is optimistic that Sappi will be more collaborative this time because it won’t want to disrupt its $418 million Project Elevate expansion project to increase capacity to produce solid bleached sulfate paperboard projects.
“The last time, we gave a ten-day notice [to strike], we had UPS drivers stay out of the mill and rail workers ready to stay out,” he said. “Now we’ve got union contractors in there who can shut Project Elevate down if we’re standing on the side of the road.”
The union and company currently have two weeks of bargaining sessions over economic issues scheduled, one in July and one in August.
Huhtamaki Workers Prepare for Bargaining
When Huhtamaki workers with USW 449 ratified their contract five years ago, they won above-average wages for the paper industry, but the pandemic and inflation have eroded the value of those raises. With their contract up in September, the workers will be looking for some decent wage increases to keep up with the rising cost of living
“We’re alive and well,” said USW 449 President Lee Drouin. “The members are looking to address vacation time, health insurance and pensions and get some pay raises to keep up with the cost of living.”
The good news is the union’s pension is finally out of the red thanks to President Biden’s signing of the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which provided funding to shore up over 200 multi-employer pension plans like USW's PACE Industry Union-Management Pension Fund (PIUMPF) pension that were teetering on the edge of insolvency due to Wall Street greed. That means workers can finally negotiate improvements to their pension moving forward after years of it being frozen.
Local 449 held agenda meetings throughout April and plans to also hold organizing trainings to build power in preparation for bargaining. We will keep you posted on developments and any updates about how you can support our brothers and sisters in Central Maine.