By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – Nearly 200 recently laid-off workers at the McKinley Paper Mill got some big wins at the bargaining table on Monday.

In a surprise turnaround, the parent company Bio Pappel officially announced the permanent closure of the Port Angeles facility. That move automatically triggered the benefits outlined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement and ensures that all eligible employees will receive the full range of benefits they are entitled to, including extended medical coverage and severance pay for workers who were employed for 2 years or more.

Josh Estes of the Paper Workers Union told KONP they also got the company to agree to worker’s call-back rights.

“And in the counter-proposal we asked for an extended period of callback rights. And if they are hopeful to bring that facility back and it goes beyond a year, we wanted to make sure that people are still available, and if they want to come back, that they have that option before going outside to somebody that wasn’t an employee before. They granted that, so they extended that to 18 months.”

Another concession the company made was to guarantee that the dozen or so skeleton crew workers that will stay on and keep the mill in good repair will get at least a 30 day notice if they too are to be let go.

Estes acknowledges the good news/bad news element of calling it a permanent closure rather than a temporary closure, but he remains optimistic.

“They’re triggering a permanent closure so they do right by the community, and by the members, but they’re also demonstrating that they have some intent and hope that if market conditions change that they can restart.”

Estes gives a lot of credit to the community for the successful outcomes the union was able to negotiate.

“The importance of really demonstrating…you might mention a quick turnaround in bargaining and whatever that’s attributed to. I would say part of that’s attributed to having strong community partners and elected officials that supported our efforts to demand clarity and transparency, and by doing that, we ended up with a much more positive outcome than most people probably anticipated. So thank you, and thanks to all the folks that provided a forum to get our message out.”

(Staff photo of McKinley Paper employees)