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Union angry over Domtar's move to China
Cornwall, Ont.—The union representing Domtar employees in Cornwall is angered by the paper maker’s plans to transfer production to China.
Domtar recently closed the Cornwall mill due to challenges posed by the higher Canadian dollar, and a lack of demand for the product in the world markets.
“Now we find out that the market is still vibrant and is being supplied by a mill in Shouguang, China...,” said Cec Makowski, Ontario region vice-president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
“The people of Cornwall and of Ontario have been duped,” added Bob Huget, Ontario administrative vice-president of the union.
In an interview with Purchasing b2b, he said the union asked the federal and provincial governments for help turning the mill into a co-generation plant. The governments favoured the idea, but Domtar “didn’t want to give any kind of a guarantee to the government as to how long they would run the facility. That tells me that plans had already been made some time ago to move these jobs to the US and offshore.”
Huget says Domtar’s allegation that the government refused to help is “categorically false.”
Last fall, Domtar announced the mill would close, affecting 910 jobs. At press time, Domtar could not be reached for comment.
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