Â§hria's Spot

This is it

Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. By us, I mean mine, Shaun's, Dana's, Nova's and our dependents. I also mean the 400 or so employees of St. Marys Paper Ltd. and the 300 or so people who aren't working there but whose jobs depend on the mill.

In a nutshell: St. Marys Paper has been loosing money for about two and a half years and last year its employees accepted wage and benefit concessions to save their jobs and keep the mill operating. The Province kicked in several million, created long-term programs aimed at supporting the forest industry in Northern Ontario and the owner took huge losses. Everyone has been loosing. Can we remember that? Almost everyone has been loosing.

On Tuesday the courts granted the Bank of America the right to order the mill liquidated and its debts be paid. The Bank of America will also loose a portion of its investment in the mill because of its decision.

There is one slim hope... If the employees vote today to continue its concessions until 2014 or until the company becomes profitable again then the bank, the province and the company can return to court and stop the liquidation, save the mill and continue its operation.

Enter the National Union. Its organizers say the company is posturing and isn't really $18 million or more in debt. It says that Ron Stern just wants to get his grubby little hands on the workers pensions and he has neither respect for nor appreciation of his employees' contributions to the company. They say that the workers should not have to make any more sacrifices to keep their jobs.

The one who stands to loose the least in closing St. Marys Paper in Sault Ste. Marie is the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (CEP) union, the primary national union representing St. Marys Paper workers. Unfortunately, that is the group with the most influence over the mill's future right now.

From outside looking in, it doesn't appear that CEP cares much for its members in Sault Ste. Marie. Its executive has a rare chance to save jobs and they are refusing to allow concessions because they fear it would weaken CEP's position in negotiations with other employers. They say they will be here to support their members at St. Marys Paper but they haven't proven able to do that in other places where mills where closed.

What will happen in Sault Ste. Marie when this mill closes?

Instead of deferring 20 percent of their wages for one to seven years, employees of St. Marys Paper will loose 45 percent of what they were getting when the mill closed and can plan on that level of income for a maximum of 38 weeks. After that its call centre hell or social services. The average wage in the mill right now is about $45,000 per year. They could work for a maximum of seven years at that rate and have an opportunity to recoup (its a wage deferral not a cut) the $9,000 or so a year they are investing in their jobs at the end of that time or they could close the mill and sit at home watching daytimetv for the next 38 weeks while collecting about $25,000. By the time their 38 weeks are up they should be humilliated and degraded enough to be thankful for a job in call centre hell.

And what about the rest of us?

Let's look at my family for an example. Shaun still hasn't managed to secure employment in the Sault, despite extreme and creative job-search techniques and a solid resume that includes 20-years of accident-free, skilled work in industry. His chance of getting a job here anywhere but call centre hell will be about a pubic hair from zero when another 400-600 workers are plunged into the job-search market over the next three months or so. Even the call centres will enjoy a glut of employees to choose from and work there will be harder to come by.

In case you are wondering about the 400-600 count of unemployed resulting from closing St. Marys Paper, that number reflects mill employees and a portion of the contractors, suppliers, and service providers who depend on the mill for the majority of their business.

Soon St. Marys Paper workers will have to contend with what Shaun and I have been living with for the past seven months. He is used to being the bread-winner, and a very capable one at that. Now the whole family is dependent on my $24,000 a year and Shaun must find a way to deal with not making a financial contribution to the household. Not an easy pill to swallow for any man and no less easy for a proud man who invests much of his self-esteme in his ability to provide for his family.

We are doing okay in everything other than finances but it is hard. Very hard. I don't want to see anyone else, let alone so many others face this, especially since it seems so easily avoided. If they just vote to accept the agreement before them today, St. Marys Paper workers will keep their jobs for another one to seven years and have an opportunity to improve their situation during that time. If they follow their national union's recommendation to reject the offer, then the end begins for many of us.

I will not hold my family in a place without hope. Even if it means giving up my job (I am proud to say I write for a living, even if it isn't much of a living), we will leave to find a future elsewhere. I bet we won't be the only ones, either.

We are about to witness the next wave of out-migration from Sault Ste. Marie and it won't be pretty.

I grieve.