RUMFORD – Local 900 members overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer made by NewPage Corp. during an all-day vote on Thursday.

Gary Hemingway, president of Local 900, said the vote came in at 306-93, representing just over half of the union’s membership.

“This shows the membership is very dissatisfied with the offer,” he said Thursday night.

Next, he said, the union will notify the company of the vote, then ask whether NewPage would reconsider another extension of the current six-year contract with modifications.

“If they say yes, we will set up negotiations with company reps to take another look at the offer,” Hemingway said. “If no, everything in the extension proposal will be off the table and we’ll begin negotiating a new contract in May or June.”

Hemingway said objections to the company offer included “minuscule” raises and “outrageously” small pension adjustments, as well as a much higher health insurance premium share to be paid by employees.

“If they take money away from the employees, they take it away from the community,” he said. About 90 percent of the mill’s employees live in Oxford County.

Tony Lyons, spokesman for the mill, said the company was surprised by the voting results. “We thought it was a fair offer,” he said.

The extension would have lengthened the current contract that expires on July 1 to November 2009.

Lyons said he will not know the next step the company will take until it officially receives the voting results from the union.

“I’m encouraged that they are still interested in extending the same contract,” he said.

Included in the offer made by the company was a 2 percent wage increase in the first and second years and a 1 percent raise during the final five months of the contract, as well as progressively higher employee-paid health insurance premiums.

About 800 of the mill’s 1,100 employees are members of Local 900, United Steel Workers, AFL-CIO-CLC.