As of May 1, UPM Kymmene’s employees at Miramichi will be taking 5.5% less money home in their paycheques.
As of May 1, UPM Kymmene’s employees at Miramichi will be taking 5.5% less money home in their paycheques.
According to a report by the NB Telegraph-Journal, employees consented to the wage cuts in order to keep their jobs.
“We’ve taken a 5.5% rollback and a wage freeze in 2006,” the Telegraph-Journal reported Chris Allison, president of Local 689 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada as saying. “We get a 2% increase in 2007, and we go back to normal in 2008.”
The story further reported that any lost wages will be viewed in terms of a loan to the company, and after two years of profits, that money will be returned to employees.
A total of 15 people will be offered early retirement.
The facility is in the middle of a three-month shutdown and operations are scheduled to start up again on May 1. However, as the Telegraph-Journal indicated, UPM officials are reportedly aiming to slash costs by 12%, an ambitious goal should a proposed power rate increase be implemented on April 1.
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