Published: July 08, 2009 08:39 pm      

New labor contract in place at NewPage’s Luke mill

LUKE — A new four-year labor contract at NewPage Corp.’s Luke mill ratified by United Steelworkers Local 676 includes production workers and mechanical maintenance trades. The previous contract expired Dec. 1.

Local 676 voted July 1 to ratify the new contract that will expire Dec. 1, 2012. The pact calls for a 2-percent increase in wages each year of the four-year contract.

The contract also provides improvements in retirement benefits, life insurance, and accident and sickness benefits each year, according to mill spokeswoman Patsy Koontz.

“There were a number of challenging issues for both parties in this very difficult economic environment. Both parties worked diligently to bring these issues to a successful conclusion,” mill manager Gary Curtis said.

Approximately 700 members of the USW Local 676 are part of the mill’s total work force of nearly 1,000 employees.

Ratification of the new contract opens the way for negotiations to begin by NewPage with Local 1653 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 45 electrical workers at the mill. Negotiations with Local 1653 were “placed on hold” pending finalization of the United Steelworkers contract.

“There have been no interruptions to production, and we expect a successful conclusion to this contract as well,” said Koontz.

Efforts to contact Local 676 President Jennings Lambert were unsuccessful.

Headquartered in Miamisburg, Ohio, NewPage is the largest coated paper manufacturer in North America, based on production capacity, with $4.4 billion in net sales for the year ended Dec. 31, 2008.

New Page owns paper mills in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nova Scotia, Canada.

The mills have a total annual production capacity of approximately 4.4 million tons of paper, including approximately 3.2 million tons of coated paper, approximately 1 million tons of uncoated paper and approximately 200,000 tons of specialty paper.