Protest Over AbitibiBowater Pension Plan Changes

A hearing will be held in Thunder Bay this week over a contract dispute between AbitibiBowater and two labour unions at the mill in Fort Frances.
Brian Short of the International Association of Machinists Union says it centres around the company’s attempts to impose a new pension plan. Both the Machinists and the Electrical Workers Union say that contravenes a deal signed in 2007 that aided the company in building its new biomass project. Short says the company had agreed to a moratorium on pension plan changes that was to have run until 2014.