The 600 union members walked out June 16, opposing company demands for workers to pay 25 percent of health insurance costs. The unions were also fighting for increased retirement benefits. Taking advantage of layoffs by other paper companies, the bosses hired 400 replacement workers to get the plant running again.

"We had to settle for basically the same contract we went out on strike against," said Ron Gates, secretary-treasurer of the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union (PACE) Local 155.

But in final negotiations, the company moved to deny all but 42 strikers their jobs, saying they will retain the replacement workers. Finch, Pruyn also insisted that the new contract make the plant an open shop, instituting "voluntary" union membership for all employees hired after June 16. In addition the company maintained that workers would have to pay 35 percent of their health-care costs and set a deadline of midnight November 20 for the unions to accept the offer.

Union negotiators said the company's last-minute revisions of its offer confirmed their suspicions that Finch, Pruyn intended to break its unions. "It's union busting; that's what it's been about since day one," said Tim Palmer, vice-president of PACE Local 155.

The unions' negotiating committee made no recommendation to the membership of the seven striking locals, who had voted to reject the company's offer November 16 despite a growing number of workers crossing the picket lines. Prior to the company's placing of ads for permanent replacement workers in mid-October, no striking unionists had crossed the picket line.

Management also won increased flexibility in assigning work to carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and machinists who work at the Glens Falls paper mill. Additional concessions in the five-and-a-half-year contract include the elimination of double time pay on Sundays and significantly reduced holiday pay.  
 
 
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