SAPPI Skowhegan Workers (USW 4-9) Rally for Fair Contract

Sappi workers (USW 4-9) gathered outside the Poulin-Turner Union Hall in Skowhegan for a solidarity rally on Tuesday to urge the company to negotiate a fair contract. Members of the 480-member Local 4-9 previously authorized a strike over excessive forced overtime changes to health insurance and reductions to vacation time.

“Wages are always there, but that’s not on the forefront right now,” USW 4-9 President Justin Shaw, a pipe fitter at the Skowhegan mill, told the Morning Sentinel.

Workers have spoken out about the company’s abuse of forced overtime, which prevents them from achieving a proper work-life balance and threatens workplace and public safety. At the same time, the company is seeking to replace the employee health plan with a co-insurance plan that would require them to continue paying 10 percent of health care costs after reaching the deductible to a higher out-of-pocket limit. The workers are also opposed to a plan to take away unpaid vacation time when they use their earned paid leave.

“There’s a struggle going on in this country right now,” said USW Labor Representative Mike Higgins in an interview. “Workers, whether they’re unionized or not unionized, are trying to find their way in this economy. Everybody is feeling the pinch at the grocery store, at the gas pumps. The cost of goods and services has gone up over the last three or four years. Our members are not unique to that.”