KAMLOOPS, B.C. (From news reports) -- Unifor members at the Domtar pulp mill in Kamloops have ratified a new four-year contract.

The deal was ratified with an 80 percent majority and includes a two percent wage increase in each year of the deal and addressed retiree health benefits, retention and training, as well as improved benefits.

Unifor local 10-B Kamloops president Rene Pellerin says bargaining for the deal started in May in Prince George, home to their pattern agreement, and was brought to Kamloops and negotiated in five days earlier this month. He says negotiations went smoothly.

"Both parties brought their agendas and made adjustments to get an agreement and I think we got a good deal for our members here in Kamloops," he says. "The agreement got us in a position where corporate is looking at some significant investments here for the life of the mill and that's a good thing for our younger members."

The deal covers 250 workers and replaces the last deal which expired on May 1, 2017.

****

Jim Thompson is back again...with a new book on a taboo subject: the personalities in the pulp & paper industry. Jim has written in the past on many subjects based on his four plus decades in the worldwide pulp and paper industry. This new book is packed full of information valuable to the senior member of the industry as well as the recent entrant. A must for every pulp and paper library.