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MERRITT HERALD FREE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 2, 2014 • MERRITT NEWSPAPERS
CENTS READY FOR THE NEW YEAR! CENTSATIONAL! After a 10-day break for the Christmas holidays, the Merritt Centennials are ready and rarin’ to go in the new year. They have three huge games this weekend. Friday night, they host the Evil Empire (a.k.a. Penticton Vees) at the Nicola Valley Memorial Arena at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, there’s a fan bus going to Salmon Arm for the Cents’ 7 p.m. showdown with the Silverbacks — the team Merritt beat twice in a row on home ice to close out their December schedule (above). Tickets are still available for the fan bus by calling the Centennials’ marketing office at 378-3604. The Cents close out their three-games-in-three-days with a visit to the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton for another clash with the dastardly Interior Division-leading Vees. The puck drops on the matinee tilt at 3 p.m. Ian Webster/Herald
New contract for Aspen Planers and Tolko workers THE HERALD
reporter@merrittherald.com
Forest workers at mills such as Aspen Planers and Tolko in Merritt will be getting a raise after six months without a new contract. An agreement has been reached on a new five year deal between the union United Steelworkers (USW) Wood Council and Interior Forest Labour Relations Association (IFLRA), who were bargaining
for management of those mills. The retroactive agreement ranges from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2018. It will see all USW forest workers employed at IFLRA member companies across the Southern Interior of B.C. receive a 13 per cent general increase in pay and $3,400 signing bonuses across the board over the life of the contract. Employees get a three per cent raise, with an additional
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basically beat anything we’ve had in the last 20 years,” local USW president Marty Gibbons told the Herald. “When you consider the general wage increase combined with the pension increase, it’s a 16 per cent wage increase over five years,” he said. Gibbons said the average tradesperson alone will be getting paid more than 23 per cent more by the end of this deal than they are currently making,
$400 lump sum in the first year of the contract. They will get a two per cent raise the following year, a 2.5 per cent raise and $1,000 lump sum in years three and four and another three per cent raise and $1,000 lump sum in the fifth year of the contract. Union employees will also have $1 per hour per employee put into their pension plan. “The monetary increases in the collective agreement
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taking into account the general wage increase, pension funding and a trades bonus. The IFLRA proposed the deal, union membership voted on it over the past two weeks and it was ratified by about 60 or 70 per cent of membership, Gibbons said. “It wasn’t quite as highly ratified as we figured it would, but we believe that may be more related to some hostility between some of our employers and their employees more so than just the con-
tract” Gibbons said. He also said this deal came on the verge of a work stoppage as in November a vote on instituting a strike was held and approved by union members, meaning at least half of them were prepared to walk the picket lines. “It was a brink of a strike. If this deal was voted down – had it been failed – we would be on strike right now,” Gibbons aid. He also said, they had aimed for a three year deal, but settled
upon a five year deal. “Bottom line is we couldn’t get this kind of financial package without a longer contract,” Gibbon said. There was also significant improvements in healthcare benefits, Gibbons said, noting increases in short-term disability, eyeglasses and dental work such as braces. “It’s the best deal we’ve had since the 80s and it’s about as far as we were going to go without a strike,” Gibbons said.
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