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As indicated at the membership meeting held on June 28, 2010, your committee would make every attempt to provide you with an update as issues progressed.

The committee ( with the exception of Brother Brad Schmidt who was on vacation ) met with Norampac Management on Wednesday August 18th. At the meeting the employer provided your committee with an ultimatum that either we either respond in a positive form to the employer's final offer of concessions to reduce labour costs by $1 million dollars at the Burnaby division by August 30th or they would close the plant. The employer has provided some documentation that shows different methods of achieving the labour cost reductions but in the end, they were concessions in the same amount required to achieve those savings for the employer as previously proposed and rejected by the membership at the June 28th membership meeting.

Your committee met on Friday, August 20th and again as a full committee on Saturday August 21st to review the employer's ultimatum. Following the meeting on Saturday, we contacted Danick Lavoie and to advise him that the committee, while willing to bargain, did not have the mandate from the membership to bargain a concessionary agreement and that the committee would be conducting a membership meeting on August 31st, 2010 to discuss the employer's ultimatum. He was also advised that the reason for the date was not to stall discussions, but rather to allow for proper notice of the meeting to be sent out to the members given the number of you that are off on vacation.

Mr. Lavoie's response was that the employer would be sending out letters to the membership on Monday and holding a town hall meeting on August 24th, to present their ultimatum to you and would be applying to the Labour Relations Board for a Final Offer Vote on the employer's proposed agreement and if the members did not accept it, the next step would be to close the mill. When questioned on whether there would be a change in position, he advised the committee that he would "tweak their offer to make it more acceptable to the membership" but would not be presenting it to your committee as is the normal process in collective bargaining.

Your committee encourages you to attend the membership meeting on August 31st, to discuss the employer's ultimatum presented to us and seeking direction from the members on the future bargaining proposals with the employer.

In solidarity,

CEP Local 1129 Bargaining Committee