Union workers at Sappi's Wesbrook mill get new labor contract

Courtesy / SAPPI North America Sappi North America Inc., headquartered in Boston, has four diversified businesses: high-quality graphic papers, dissolving pulp, packaging and specialty papers.

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By Alexis Wells

Unionized workers at Sappi paper mill in Westbrook have approved a new contract that will give them a 3% raise plus a $3,800 sign-on bonus.

Members of United Steelworkers Local 1069 voted on July 11 to accept the agreement. The union represents 100 workers at the Sappi Westbrook mill.

Notable improvements to the workers’ defined benefit pensions will be implemented, with the addition of a $1 multiplier.

The deal also has a new long-term disability insurance plan and a modest increase to short-term disability, which will bring it up to $460 a week.

The contract will also give employees the option to break up another week of vacation into individual days to make it easier for members with less seniority to take time off.

“It’s a pretty decent contract and the negotiations went quickly and fairly smoothly. I’ve been at the bargaining table when there’s been some table pounding in the past, but this one went fairly well,” said USW Local 1069 President Ron Rondeau.

“We secured wage increases, a new long-term disability insurance plan, improvements to our short-term disability plan and a signing bonus,” Rondeau said. “During the last three contract negotiations, the company has tried to get us to give up our defined benefit pension and go to a defined contribution pension. Our negotiation committee includes many of our younger members, but they held strong on defending our pension and even modestly improved it during negotiations. I’m really proud of the work they did.”

The agreement will go into effect on Aug.21.

Sappi North America Inc., headquartered in Boston, has four diversified businesses: high-quality graphic papers, dissolving pulp, packaging and specialty papers. Sappi NA is a subsidiary of Sappi Ltd., a global company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, with more than 12,000 employees and manufacturing operations in seven countries. In addition to the plant in Westbrook, Sappi has a North American sales office in Westbrook.

Sappi's Somerset mill in Skowhegan is undergoing a $418 million upgrade.