PA Mill Buyer Inherits Union Automatically

PA Mill Buyer Inherits Union Automatically

Thursday, September 21, 2006 at 15:23

A union leader at the Prince Albert Pulp and Paper mill says no matter who buys the facility, they will automatically inherit the union.

It was a Prince Albert newspaper that recently published comments made by Domtar C.E.O. Raymond Royer. At a conference in New York, the soon-to-be owner of the Prince Albert mill said he didn’t think it could be reopened under current market conditions because of its labor agreement.

Those comments have infuriated current Union Head at the mill Ron Rucks, who says he wishes Domtar would just contact them so they can talk. He adds whoever buys the mill will have to deal with them though no matter what.

Meanwhile, there’s still no further news on whether the merger between Weyerhaeuser and Domtar could be impacted by Domtar’s apparent refusal to sign onto the new softwood lumber agreement.

One industry analyst asking not to be quoted says he isn’t sure why the company won’t agree to the measure because they’ll likely have to pay the government 19% in taxes either way.

Published reports claim the government could try and tie up the corporate merger through use of the Competition Bureau.