Maine mill workers flex contract muscles

COURTESY / UNITED STEELWORKERS LOCAL 449 Members of the United Steelworkers Local 449, which represents workers at the Huhtamaki paper mill in Waterville, approved a five-year contract that raises wages, improves benefits and will mean more union jobs.

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By Renee Cordes

Paper mill workers in Maine are winning better pay and benefits as employers struggle to attract and keep workers in today’s low-jobless climate, the latest contract outcome at the Huhtamaki mill in Waterville shows.

“We’re definitely seeing mill workers get much better contracts than in the past,” Andy O’Brien, a spokesperson for the Maine AFL-CIO, told Mainebiz.

“I think the companies understand that in this economy, they have to provide competitive wages and benefits in order to retain good, skilled workers.”

Last month, members of United Steelworkers Local 449 in Waterville overwhelmingly approved a new five-year contract that raises wages, improves benefits and increases the number of union jobs at the mill owned by Huhtamaki, Oy, a global food packaging specialist based in Espoo, Finland.

The contract includes annual wage increases every year for the next five years, starting with a 2.85% increase in the first year and an additional 50% wage increase in the first year for 140 workers in the smooth finish department; six weeks of paid vacation for 75 mill workers with 35 years of service; improvements to disability, dental and life insurance while leaving health insurance benefits unchanged; and 30 to 40 new union jobs at the mill.

“This is one of the best contracts I’ve seen in the 25 years I’ve worked at Huhtamaki,” said Lee Drouin, president of USW Local 225, in a Feb. 25 news release. “Some of our veteran employees who have been here 30 or 40 years also say this is the best contract they’ve ever seen.”

The contract follows similar successes at the Westbrook paper mill of Sappi North America ratified by workers last July, Sappi’s Skowhegan mill agreed in February 2019 and at Woodland Pulp LLC in Baileyville agreed in November. The Baileyville contract strengthened rules specific to separate trades and provided for pay increases for trades and production workers at the plant, which is just north of Calais on the St. Croix River.

In Waterville, union leaders said the negotiations at the Huhtamaki mill were collaborative, and credited the Finnish owner for listening to workers’ concerns.

“We had a great relationship with company representatives at the bargaining table and there wasn’t a lot of fighting or contention,” said Mike Higgins, labor representative for USW 449. “The company was very receptive to what we had to say, and we were very receptive to what the company had to say.”