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Tue, Mar 19, 2024 00:22
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Management Side
Cascades, workers agree to new labor pact

NIAGARA FALLS (From news reports) -- Workers at Cascades Containerboard Packing in the city have overwhelmingly ratified a collective bargaining agreement which will remain in place until the end of the year.

Some employees will receive retroactive pay from working over the last couple years, according to Business Representative Ron Warner of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers. The contract comes after employees voted to join the union in April 2019.

Cascades Containerboard is a Quebec-owned company and has been the repeated target of community complaints because of foul odors emitted during waste treatment.

Warner said with the first contract out of the way, things should be easier now because the structure is in place. Warner said it should take about two weeks to negotiate the next deal.

Hugo D'Amours is vice president of communications, public affairs and sustainability for Cascades.

"It is really important for us," he said of the agreement. "We are happy about the outcome. It is a win/win. The particular situation was challenging because of the pandemic as well as operational issues."

Asked for clarification, he cited the difficulty of maintaining staffing and the complication of employees not being available to work. Cascades, as a packaging manufacturer, was deemed an essential business and stayed open throughout the pandemic shutdown. He said 88% of the employees eligible to vote supported the contract which he described as very much in line with other facilities. He also said the company has received very few odor complaints in the last couple months and was surprised when informed of community complaints from a couple weeks ago.

The 100 or so employees at the plant make a wage of about $25 per hour working a rotating swing shift so the plant remains staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week but no one is stuck working only nights and weekends.

"The conditions are terrible. The hours are terrible. The work is tough. It is a hard place to work," Warner said.

"It took longer than we wanted," D'Amours said, "but in the end, it was a happy ending."

Warner said that with a contract in place, there will be rules and guidelines to be followed and "no more favorite son status."

As for the continuous issue with odors proliferating the in the community, he said he understands.

"We are continuously concerned about the conditions for everybody working there and the neighborhood," Warner said. "Many of the employees live in the neighborhood."

He added that the new contract could be a sign that organized labor is rising again.

"If we don't have it, if it doesn't happen, we are going to lose the middle class all together," he said. "The only people making out are the 1%. It's not the working class."

D'Amours said Cascade begain with the LeMaire Family bringing a shut mill back to like in Kingsey Falls, Quebec in 1964, by 1967, it had turned a profit. The company has been growing ever since, most recently through acquisition. Some of the newer facilities are union, but most have existed otherwise, in a large part based on biannual profit sharing bonuses.

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