RUMFORD – The executive board and negotiation committee of Local 900 have recommended against the approval of an extension to the union’s contract with NewPage Corp.

“It does not satisfy our criteria,” said Local 900 President Gary Hemingway at a Monday afternoon news conference. “We want to go back to better the monetary parts of the contract. There are too small raises and too small pension, and too high costs for health care.”

NewPage Corp. spokesman Tony Lyons could not be reached for comment Monday.

At issue is extending the six-year contract that expires on July 1 for an additional two years and five months, bringing the new expiration date to November 2009.

If the company’s proposal is turned down during Thursday’s vote, Hemingway said the union will ask NewPage to reopen the contract. If it doesn’t, then the union will serve a 60-day notice that negotiations will begin for a new contract after the current one expires on July 1.

He said there will be no strike, and employees will not be working without a contract if Thursday’s vote agrees with the recommendation.

He added that if regular negotiations begin for an entirely new contract, “everything will be on the table,” and not just the financial components of the labor agreement.

Among issues are the company’s proposed pay raises for an extended contract. They are: 2 percent the first year, 2 percent the second year, then 1 percent for the remaining five months. The figures, said Hemingway, do not meet inflation. He added that such raises would likely more than be eaten up by higher health insurance premium costs.

He said the company’s proposal calls for an increase in the employee’s share of health insurance premiums of about $2 million, compared with just under $200,000 a year now.

“We’ll pay more on the dollar than the salaried people,” he said. “This is a huge step backward.”

Hemingway, the committee and board membership said the Rumford mill location is doing well right now, bringing in a 7 percent return.

“But we’re doing more with less. We’ve been running short-handed,” he said.

On a related issue, he said the No. 11 paper machine, which has been down for several months, is scheduled to be up and running again next week. He also said that all 34 people who were laid off last fall have been recalled, and that advertisements for 12 additional workers will soon appear in local newspapers.

The mill, with home offices in Ohio, employs about 1,100 people. Of those, about 800 are members of Local Union 900, a member of the United Steel Workers.