CAMAS — Workers at the paper mill in downtown Camas have been in labor negotiations with owner Georgia-Pacific Corp. for nearly two-and-a-half years, but there’s no contract in sight, according to the workers’ union.
The Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers Local 5 represent some 350 employees at the company’s pulp and paper mill, where workers have been on the job without a contract since the last deal expired in May 2014. The latest offer from Georgia-Pacific, union representatives contend, cuts wages for new hires, drops a handful of paid holidays and offers “substandard” health insurance.
“It’s the worst economic offer I’ve ever seen and I’ve been doing this for awhile,” said Jim Anderson, a union negotiator.
The current offer, he said, would pay new hires 20 percent less at entry-level jobs and raise deductible and out-of-pocket maximums on health coverage. The union is also fighting what it calls “attacks” on seniority.
Representatives with the Atlanta-based company, which has been a subsidiary of Koch Industries since 2005, said the proposed contract is the same as agreements at other Georgia-Pacific mills in the Pacific Northwest. The company owns the Camas mill and three in Oregon.
“Camas employees are not being asked to agree to anything different than other GP employees represented by unions nationwide,” said spokeswoman Kristi Ward. “There are no pay reductions for current employees. Any lower wages would apply only to new hires, and the average salary for Camas hourly employees was more than $76,000 a year, not including benefits.”
The union is seeking an eight-year contract, with two years retroactive.
In addition to the wage issues, Anderson added the negotiating process has gone “extremely slow” because lawyers at the company’s end of the table can only meet one week per month, and they spend two days of that week traveling.
“We haven’t met for a month now, so it’s really hard when we get back to the table, you almost have to spend one of those three days saying ‘OK, where are we at?'” he said.
The union, which represents mechanics, pipefitters, janitorial staff and more job classifications at the mill, had around 2,400 members in the 1980s. Both sides say the mill’s overall production has fallen in recent years due to its aging machinery. Ward said the company has decided to pay fewer employees rather than reinvest in the mill.
“As the mill aged, just as in other mills in the Pacific Northwest, the equipment shut down as it became noncompetitive,” she said. “It takes tens of millions annually to maintain the facility.”
About 430 employees remain at the mill. The average Camas mill worker, according to the union, is 50 years old with 20 years of service.
Georgia-Pacific has owned the mill since 2000. Today, the mill primarily makes copy paper and commercial-size paper towels for offices and restaurants. The company said it is competing against email and other digitization.
The two sides have been at loggerheads before. The union last threatened to strike in 2009, though a deal was reached before a strike was held.
