A five-year labor contract between the Port Townsend Paper Corp. and the United Steelworkers (USW) Local 175 was approved Feb. 7 by union members with an overwhelming 115 yes votes to 32 votes cast against it.

The mill’s first offer was narrowly rejected in early January.

The bargaining committee for USW Local 175 unanimously recommended that the second contract be ratified.

“Both parties had the interest of the long-term viability of the mill in mind, and assuring the mill meets and exceeds industry standards for safety and productivity,” said Phil Dupuy, USW Local 175 president.

Although it does not call for a general wage increase in 2017, the new contract does provide for cash payments to union members in exchange for a phase-out of provisions related to early retirement coverage and Sunday shifts.

Carr Tyndall, PTPC general manager, said in a joint statement with Dupuy that the company “believes that the terms of the new agreement are consistent with the terms and conditions bargained with USW locals throughout the country and would allow Port Townsend Paper the opportunity to compete in the marketplace and further invest in the mill.”

The agreement takes effect March 1 and runs through Feb. 28, 2022.

OTHER CHANGES

While there is no general wage increase in 2017, there is a 1.5 percent increase in March 2018, and a 2 percent increase effective in March 2019, 2020 and 2021, according to the agreement.

Employees had until midnight on Feb. 8 to ratify the second proposed agreement.

There also were lump-sum payments to workers as a ratification bonus in exchange for elimination of a meal allowance and a premium for working Sundays.

So this year, tour shift workers are to receive a bonus of $3,586 and non-tour day workers are to receive a bonus of $1,336, according to the contract. The bonuses continue in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Payments are made to employees on the active payroll, the contract says.

RETIREMENT MEDICAL

A section on retiree medical insurance also has been eliminated from the contact, which means that employees who will be 60-65 years old with 10 years’ of service on or before Dec. 31, 2017 and retire no later than Dec. 31, 2017 will be eligible to receive a monthly stipend of $550 per month for themselves and each of their eligible dependents to purchase medical insurance until the employee and spouse reach 65 years old and dependent children reach 26 years old, according to the agreement.

Employees who are 55 years old with 30 years of services will be eligible for a onetime lump-sum payment of $2,500 effective March 1, 2017.

That was a controversial provision, and other union members were not pleased with it but declined to be quoted.

Few unions have kept those provisions in place, Dupuy said.

“Those benefits have been gone for awhile,” he said of the Sunday benefits that now are gone for PTPC employees as well.

The early-retirement benefits also are a thing of the past, he said.

EMPLOYEES VALUED

Dupuy, who is 55 years old and has worked at the mill through three different owners since 1983, said the new owners are thinking about the long term.

“They are improving the mill’s infrastructure, which has been neglected in the past,” he said. “And they know that to keep up in today’s world, they have to make the necessary improvements.

“I think they also realize the value of the employees,” Dupuy said, “There are things there you can’t learn from a book.”

Dupuy also said international safety staff are going to be brought into the mill to see what can be improved.

“The company is open to do that … to keep us safe and the mill moving forward,” he said.

As for provisions that he says he knows might not make everyone happy, Dupuy said, “At the end of the day, I have a good job and good benefits, and it’s reassuring.”