= Smurfit-MBI negotiations have been completed. Norman Garcia end of the agreement while there are pension and other benefit improvements. [> Larson and Shaw crew ratifies Local 1-500 also reports that the Larson and Shaw hinge plant in Walkerton has a new three year agreement, ratified by over 80 per cent in mid- September. Wages go up by 9 per cent over the term of the agree- ment, along with benefit improve- ments. >> Innseape Office Furniture Business agent Ron Diotte negotiated a three-year agree- ment for Local 1-500 members working at the Innscape office fur- niture plant Newmarket, with wage and benefit improvements. The contract was ratified in late October. Workers reaching 60 years of age will now be able to retire with a pension discount of ro per cent (2 per cent per year less for every year under 65). There are 175 - Steelworkers in the facility which makes metal office furniture. > Deal at KIMI Local 1-500 also reports that officer Saul Marques led a negotiating team to a success- ful three-year agree- ment at KML Building Solutions in Cambridge, where about 60 members work. The crew gets 3 per cent in each year and improved benefits. >> Smurfit-MBI corru- gated plants Local 1-500 negotiat- ed a four-year collective agreement at two Smurfit-MBI plants in Whitby and Etobicoke this summer. Workers got a $1,400 signing bonus in the first year and a two Ron Diotte per cent wage increase in subse- quent years. About 310 workers are employed in the two corrugated > Container plant operations. | Local 1-500’s Ron Diotte reports that negotiations should start soon for 35 members at the Grief Brothers container plant in Milton. [> Bloorview Kids Hospital Local 1-500’s Sodexho bargaining unit has grown since about 15 work- ers from the Universal Workers union voted to join 35 Steelworkers employed at the expanding Bloorview Children’s Hospital in Toronto, reports local business agent Ron Diotte. Seniority lists are being merged and job assignments are being sorted out at the facility, which is located behind the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. >> Plastics plant Local 1- 500 officer and business agent Saul Marques is leading a negotiating team at the RTS Plastics (formerly Canbar) plant in Waterloo. The con- tract expired on November 13. About 40 members work there. [> NDP joins unions in Thunder Bay Local 1-2693 joined Federal NDP opposition members Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) and NDP Ontario MPP Gilles Bisson on the party’s “Stop the Sell-Out” tour of Northern Ontario. On November 27, less than a week after the Ontario Conservative government of Dalton McGuinty announced a “Northern Pulp and Paper Electricity Transition Program,” the Bowater corporation notified USW Local 1- 2693 woodland crews and CEP pulp mill workers it would be restructur- ing the company anyways. The effects on Steelworker jobs is not yet know. The Conservative government has done too little too late, says Local 1-2693 president Joe Hanlon. To receive a reduction in Ontario Hydro rates, forest companies have to commit to reducing power con- sumption over three years. Bowater claims that it can save between $8 - 10 million, and Tembec is also com- ing on board. The local union repre- sents about 450 Bowater company and contractor woodlands workers. [> Local 1-2995 applies for con- ciliation Local 1- 2995 president Guy Bourgouin reports that in late November the local union applied for a conciliator after negotiations with the newly-organ- ized Cheminis Forest Products (see story page 15) were going nowhere. “This company is playing games at the bargaining table so we applied for conciliation,” says Bourgouin. Scheduled meetings for early a iP Guy Bourgouin December were cancelled. THE ALLIED WORKER DECEMBER 2006 T 11