Wages increase in each year of deal: Unifor
Unifor members voted 74 per cent in favour of the tentative agreement on May 1 with Resolute Forest Products that will set the pattern agreement for the pulp and paper industry in Eastern Canada.
“Forestry is Canada's third most valuable export sector and represents 10 per cent of all of our exports” said Jerry Dias, Unifor national president. “This contract ensures fairness for forestry workers, which in turn sustains small communities across the region.”
Highlights of the deal include wage increases of two per cent the first two years and 2.5 per cent the last two years, wage adjustments of $0.40 per hour for members working in production, wage adjustments of $0.75 per hour for skilled-trades workers effective May 1, 2018, and of $0.50 per hour effective May 1, 2021, said the union.
The deal also includes improvements to the pension plan and insurance benefits, wage progression amendment entitling employees to receive 100 per cent of their salary after 1,000 hours worked and contribution of $0.02 per hour to Unifor's Canadian Community Fund (CCF), said Unifor.
The agreement will set the monetary pattern for bargaining in the other pulp and paper mills in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic region. In all, some 15,000 members will be affected by the pattern agreement, said the union.
