OLD TOWN (AP) – Georgia-Pacific and union leaders have agreed on severance pay for former workers at the Old Town mill.

Production, maintenance and clerical union members will vote Sunday on the severance package for 300 workers who lost their jobs after the company eliminated tissue-making operations this month.

The package goes beyond the minimum requirement under state law of one week of pay for every year of service for workers who spent more than three years at the mill.

“There are some enhancements above what the state requires,” said Mike St. Peter of PACE Local 80 union.

The package to be considered by union workers includes money for those with less than three years of service. The smallest check will be equal to a minimum of two 40-hour checks.

“It’s kind of a complex formula,” said Robert Burns, a G-P spokesman. “From my prospective it’s not a final document until they approve it.”

In addition to voting on the severance pay, laid-off workers also will vote on issues they hope will enable some of them to return to work, should the company restart part of its discontinued operation.

Company officials have downplayed the possibility of restarting part of the tissue-making operation but have not ruled it out.

“If this happens, it won’t mean 300 people go back to work, but if 150 go back that will be better than where we are now,” St. Peter said.

AP-ES-04-24-03 0927EDT



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