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When 88-year-old Edna Comeau opened the door to her apartment one day last week, the Christmas turkey she and other Marathon seniors had been told not to expect this year was being handed to her. Thanks to the town pulp mill‘s main union, the turkeys magically appeared, just like the Christmas goose did at Bob Cratchit‘s house in Dickens‘ tale about a miser who learns to be generous during the Yuletide season. “I was very, very surprised,” Comeau said Wednesday. “It was just very nice.” For as long as any one can remember, the pulp mill has provided free turkeys to mill retirees and their spouses at Christmas time. But this fall, as Marathon Pulp warned its workforce of cuts to pay and benefits, the company also said the traditional turkey program was on the block. “They said it was among a number of actions the mill had to take to remain viable, which were not directly related to (compensation) concessions,” said Steelworkers Local 548 staff rep Herb Daniher. So, sure enough, Comeau and about 125 other seniors who had traditionally been on the Christmas list got a form letter saying their bird would not arrive. “I didn‘t give it too much thought, initially,” said Comeau. “Then I said: ’How stingy can you get?‘” Daniher said the local stepped in to buy the turkeys out of its own funds, not to make a point about the company‘s apparent decision to act like Scrooge, but out of respect for the former workers and their families. “This is not about taking a turkey and sticking it up the company‘s nose,” he remarked. Marathon Pulp is jointly owned by Quebec companies Kruger Inc. and the publicly-traded Tembec, which paid its CEO, James Lopez, about $1.1 million in salary and bonus in 2006. A seven-kilogram turkey costs about $20. Comeau, who raised eight children in Marathon, remembers coming to the town from New Brunswick more than 60 years ago as young men and their families arrived to work in what was then a brand-new plant. “It was Dec. 19, and I was up to me knees in snow,” she recalled. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |