CANADIAN LABOUR-MANITOBA:

WHO (IF ANYONE) WILL OWN THE PINE FALLS PLANT ?:

Since the announcement of Tembec's intention to sell their paper plant in Pine Falls Manitoba an initial three groups "interested" in the purchase has dwindled to two. One, as previously reported here at Molly's Blog, is an ex-manager who has spun his managerial power through various other corporate entities to the point where he feels that he can raise enough of other people's money to make a bid on his old workplace. Sorta like an upstart bourgeois in 18th century England purchasing a landed title. Mr J.P. Bradette, the potential purchaser in question, has offered to give employees an "equity share". My spider sense starts tingling at this. First question-how many employees ? Mr. Bradette has stated very bluntly that he intends a large number of permanent layoffs (one of the reasons why the present workers are not keen on his plan). Seems more like an attempt to divide the workforce and undercut worker opposition to his proposal than a serious offer.

One also has to ask how much such equity shares would amount to, both in terms of magnitude, in terms of type of share and in terms of relative percentage of the total shares in the company. Anyone with as long a corporate managerial career as Mr. Bradette is, of course, very familiar with how managers often go against the interests of their shareholders. The reason he feels comfortable in this offer, besides the fact that he hopes to pull the teeth of his competitors for the mill, is that he is well assured that any such equity will be both a minor component of the total equity and potential profit and also leave the workers, should they accept such an offer with no control over the future direction of the plant-which might be important if the way od making such a profit involves either selloffs to others or actually making a profit by declaring bankruptcy. It's been done before.

The other proposal on the table, a joint buyout on the part of the workers involved and the nearby Sagkeeng First Nation. This is much more to Molly's liking. An actual producers' co-op seems an impossibility at this time, and this proposal would be optimum in that it would leave control in the hands of local people who would obviously want the mill to stay. I would suggest that the local municipality should also consider joining this partnership. On the part of the First Nation it would be obvious that they should demand preference in future hirings, There should, however, be no layoffs that the other partner to the deal, the present workers, would have to suffer. I would also hope that only a realistic proportion of the $1 million that the Province has promised to the community for the "transition" will be spent on any "feasibility study" ie one that somebody's friends or those that the government of the Province hopes to make their friends will latch onto like leeches. Sorry to say it, but it's my humble opinion that the "consulting" industry is, in the vast majority of cases, smoke mirrors and pickpocketing.

I would also hope that proper legal guarantees be put in place so that there could be no future selloff of the plant, like what happened in the 1990s when it ceased to be worker owned, for temporarily attractive terms. The mill may, indeed, have to be sold in the future no matter who owns it, but this should be only when it is plain that there is no chance of it being self-supporting. For now I would also suggest that the asking price might be diminished by pointing out that any attempt remove portable assets might run into difficulties. No advocacy of anything, of course, aside from the possibility that public peaceful protest might occur in such an eventuality. It should also be made plain, probably by the municipality, that the buildings would not be allowed to sit derelict and rusting away forever. It is within the mandate of a municipality to access penalties and even expropriate any derelict property in their jurisdiction. I'd suggest that such a plain pointing out of the facts might reduce the desire of Tembec's present management to try and charge an inflated price to whomever may buy the plant.

But enough of my own opinions. Here's the story of how things stand today from the Lac Du Bonnet Leader, a local area newspaper.

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Battle for mill begins
Posted By Marc Zienkiewicz
A battle for ownership of the Tembec paper mill in Powerview-Pine Falls has begun, the Leader learned this week.

Cam Sokoloski, president of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 3-1375 which represents over 250 mill employees, said the union submitted a letter of intent to Tembec this week notifying the company of the union's employee buyout proposal.

The union, in partnership with Sagkeeng First Nation, is also submitting a proposal to the town's Community Development Committee in an attempt to conduct a feasibility study that's intended the bring the buyout to fruition.

"We're going ahead with it — we think this is best option for all involved," Sokoloski said.
Mike Fontaine, economic development officer for the First Nation, said he's excited at the prospect of the mill being community-owned like it was in the 1990s when the first employee buyout took place, prior to the mill being sold to Tembec.

"Sagkeeng is a part of this community and this could be beneficial to everyone," Fontaine said. "We were asked awhile back if we would be willing to explore this and we jumped at it and said absolutely."

Tembec recently put the mill up for sale. It has set a deadline for Feb. 1 for serious purchase offers, with the end of March being its final sale deadline.

If the mill isn't sold by then, the plant will be mothballed, Tembec has said. (Ah, as I said above, "derelict property"-Molly )

John Valley, Tembec's executive vice president of business development and corporate affairs, said the company will only be considering offers that have "real potential" to lead to an eventual takeover.

He did not elaborate as to the criteria the company is using to determine that potential, except to say time is of the essence and anyone putting an offer forward must consider that.
"If someone were to come along and say 'by golly, I want to buy the mill but I still have to get my advisers together and I have no money yet,' obviously we'd have to look at that very carefully," Valley said.

Sokoloski said if the feasibility study goes ahead, the funding for it will come out of the $1million fund recently set up by the provincial government to help the community deal with the aftermath of the recent Tembec labour dispute, which saw nearly 300 mill employees locked out by the company Sept. 1 of last year.

The lockout officially ended Jan. 13 after the Manitoba Labour board intervened. However, the workers are still out of a job and are now attempting to apply for retroactive Employment Insurance benefits.
Bradette's plan a go
As the union prepares its buyout proposal, former Tembec Vice President of Sales J.P. Bradette is also going ahead with his own purchase plan, Bradette told the Leader this week.

"In addition to offering employees a significant ownership stake in the new company, this proposal will create roughly 180 well-paid union jobs and some 20 staff positions, not to mention the benefits to the community as a whole," Bradette said in a statement written for the Leader.

"The reality at this point is that the employees will have no jobs, no wages, no benefits, and certainly no ownership in the mill, unless a viable offer can be made to Tembec by Feb. 1."

Bradette recently came to Powerview-Pine Falls to meet with the community's chamber of commerce and the union membership as well. His plan, of which no details have been made publicly available, was overwhelmingly rejected by the union membership last weekend, Sokoloski said.

Bradette said he's disappointed the union did not accept his offer.

"My understanding is that the issue was not even put to a vote; a decision as important as this one should be put to a secret ballot," he said in his statement. "I understand that my proposal may not fit with every union member's beliefs. To them I say that your support does not obligate you to accept the equity share and the well-paid jobs that will be created. Out of concern and respect for your colleagues and neighbours however, give them a choice."

Sokoloski recently told the Leader that Bradette's offer was "worse" than the Tembec concessions that led to the original lockout last year.

Bradette said support from the union is key to making his plan a success.

"The support of the employees is only the first of many steps required before the mill can be restarted. Without this support there can be no viable offer, and my concern is that the mill assets will be sold off to cover the shutdown costs, with no hope of a restart," Bradette said.

"I urge all employees and members of the community to think long and hard before ratifying such an important decision. There is still time to act, although the window is closing quickly."

CANADIAN LABOUR-MANITOBA:

WORKERS DISPLEASED WITH PINE FALLS MILL PURCHASE OFFER:

Since the provincial government ruled that the present lockout at the Tembec plant in Pine Falls Manitoba should end and become a "layoff" (see earlier here at Molly's Blog) there have been various offers and suggestions as to how to save the mill. The most prominent has been from a former managerial employee who has managed to leverage his various managerial positions and perks with various companies into real liquid wealth. He, of course, demands at least as many concessions from the workers as Tembec has done.

The other contenders include the Sagkeeng First Nation, the town of Pine Falls and the Tembec employees themselves. The provincial government has committed over a million dollars to "study" the future of the mill (ie throwing/wasting good money at its managerial friends with no expected result). In the end, if there is to be an alternative to the most prominent item on the table it would pretty well have to be a multi-stakeholder partnership including Sagkeeng, Pine Falls, the employees and, yes, the provincial government (such a partnership would be a better place to park money than "studying" the feasibility. Whether such a thing is feasible should be the judgement of one properly qualified government employee working for 2 to 3 weeks (at government speed, less out in the real world) and costing nothing extra because they would simply be diverted from other duties. The proportions of who owns what and who takes on what liabilities would be the main subject of negotiations.

In better times the mill could have easily been purchased by the workers and run as a producers' coop. In actual fact it was once exactly that before it was sold to Tembec in a moment of greed and lack of foresight. The best mixture, in my opinion, for such enterprises is a mixed partnership between a local community and a workers' cooperative. Given the present situation other players, such as private equity and the province will pretty well inevitably have to be signed on if the mill is to viable at all. Once more I emphasize that conversion to producers' coops is best done at times that lack crisis, and that such conversion should be part of the policy of pretty well every union (yes-including the public service one ala the anarchosyndicalists in Spain).

Until that great utopia of foresight...here's the continuing story of the Pine Falls plant from the pages of the Lac Du Bonnet Leader.

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Union not impressed with mill offer
Posted By Marc Zienkiewicz
The president of United Steelworkers Local 3-1375 says an offer put forward last week to buy the Tembec paper mill in Powerview-Pine Falls is "worse" than the original concessions that led to the recent employee lockout at the mill.

Cam Sokoloski said J.P. Bradette's offer, put forward at a closed-door meeting Jan. 13, was nothing to get excited about.

"It's worse than what Tembec's offer was," Sokoloski said. "We're still looking at the numbers, nothing's been decided yet. We have a ways to go yet."

Tembec's original concessions included a 35 per cent cut to the union compensation package, including an immediate 25 per cent wage reduction.

Bradette is a former Tembec VP of sales. He currently serves as "principal" for Toronto consulting firm BSC Communications. Prior to his term with Tembec, he served as VP of sales for Ontario Power Generation for four years.

Sokoloski would not give specifics on Bradette's offer, first reported in last week's Leader, but said the union is keeping all its options open. It's working jointly with Sagkeeng First Nation on a feasibility study to see if the mill could become community-owned.

In the meantime, less than half of the mill's 275 workers are still walking the picket line. The lockout officially ended last week, and since then many have left to look for work elsewhere.
Mill workers like Dorian Trethart are sticking around for the time being. The workers officially began applying for their Employment Insurance benefits this week, something they were unable to do because of the lockout.

The union is working with the Community Unemployed Help Centre in Winnipeg to try and convince Ottawa to help the workers obtain retroactive EI benefits to Sept. 1 of last year, the day the lockout started.

If that happens, each worker could get up to $7,000.

Still, Trethart and fellow union member Jeff Dugard aren't holding their breath.

"EI is like an insurance company — they love to take the premiums, but they don't want to pay out," Trethart said. "Been there, done that."

Dugard agreed.
"Just because they're letting us apply is no guarantee they'll give us anything," he said.

In the mean time, Tembec has pushed its purchase deadline back to the end of March. It recently put the mill up for sale, and said if it didn't get purchased by the end of January, the mill would be mothballed.

Ed Gaffray, acting president of the Blue Water Chamber of Commerce, said that's encouraging. The chamber met with Bradette last week.

"It was more of an information meeting to let people know he was serious," Gaffray said.

"Pushing the deadline back does show there's a serious offer there, but time will tell.

Buying a mill isn't like buying a car — there's a lot involved, and it's even more complicated right now what with the economy and all."

The USW picket line headquarters across from the mill will come down in about a week, the union said.

CANADIAN LABOUR-MANITOBA:

TEMBEC LOCKOUT ENDS:

The lockout at the Tembec plant in Pine Falls Manitoba, which has been ongoing since last September 1, is now over. Molly has blogged multiple times on the subject of this dispute. Today the Manitoba Labour Board ordered Tembec to end its lockout. It is expected that layoff notices will be issued to the workers involved, allowing them to collect EI. This marks the sterling failure of the claims of both our provincial government and local Conservative MPs that they might influence the federal government to allow the Tembec workers to collect EI. Another thing that Molly is at pains to point out is, while the idea of any "influence" over the feds to persuade them to actually help rather than harm workers is ludicrous, it has always been in the domain of the Province to do what they have done today. The Conservatives make no claims about being a friend of labour. Our provincial NDP does. Why wasn't this action taken long ago ? Here's the story about today's ruling from the CBC.

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Lockout at Pine Falls plant ends:
The Manitoba Labour Board has ordered an immediate end to a prolonged lockout at the Tembec newsprint mill in Pine Falls, Man., CBC News has learned.

The mill has been idle since Sept.1 after the Montreal-based company locked out more than 250 unionized workers and stopped operations. Prior to closing, the company had said it needed "an immediate and significant reduction" in labour costs to stay competitive in the newsprint market.

The United Steelworkers union had applied to the labour board for arbitration in the labour dispute. This morning, the board ordered Tembec to end the lockout, the union said.

Employees on the picket line have just learned of the new development, United Steelworkers union spokesperson Wayne Skrypnyk said.

Not going back to work
However, unionized employees will not be going back to their jobs in the wake of Wednesday's announcement.

Tembec announced in December that it was putting the mill up for sale and would not be resuming operations even if the lockout was ended.

Skrypnyk said the lockout's end isn't considered a victory for the union workers, but will come as some relief to them as they'll now be issued layoff notices and become eligible for Employment Insurance benefits.

An arbitrator will still be appointed to try and resolve outstanding issues between labour and management, Skrypnyk said.

The mill is about 130 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

CANADIAN LABOUR-MANITOBA:

TEMBEC LOCKOUT CONTINUES AS WORKERS REJECT OFFER:

The lockout of workers at the Tembec plant in Pine Falls Manitoba seems set to continue into the New Year as workers there have rejected an offer on the part of the company to change their status from "locked out" to "laid off" in return for concessions that would essentially give up all other rights that they are entitled to. Here is how the matter was reported by the Winnipeg Free Press.

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Union rejects layoff offer at Tembec's newsprint mill in Manitoba:
By: THE CANADIAN PRESS
PINE FALLS, Man. - Hundreds of locked-out workers at a Tembec forestry mill in Pine Falls, Man., rejected Wednesday a company proposal to change the terms of their severance and employment security.

During a meeting Tuesday with two conciliators from the Manitoba Department of Labour, Tembec had proposed changing the lockout to a layoff, an idea the union supported because it would allow its members to collect Employment Insurance.

However, the union said Tembec's offer was conditional on workers agreeing to defer severance pay and give up their employment security rights unless the operations were running at 100 per cent capacity.

"It is clear Tembec has no interest in ending this dispute because it tabled proposals it surely must have known would be rejected outright by their employees, our members," said United Steelworkers union area supervisor Wayne Skrypnyk.

In all, 280 workers have been on the picket line since September in a dispute over wage cuts, and their union has now applied for provincial arbitration.

The union said the company had been seeking wage and contract concessions that exceed 35 per cent.

Tembec announced earlier this month that it was putting the plant up for sale and was prepared to end the lockout, subject to an agreement on some local issues.

Before it locked out the workers, Tembec said it needed immediate and significant cuts in labour costs at the mill to keep it competitive.

Demand for newsprint has dropped across North America because of the recession and changes in newspapers affected by the migration of news and advertising to the Internet.

Tembec is one of Canada's largest forestry companies, with operations in Quebec and other parts of the country, and in France.

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Meanwhile the United Steel Workers have issued a press release which goes into more detail as to why the workers rejected the offer. It also mentions that the rejection was unanimous. To my knowledge no mass media outlet has picked up on this press release. Here it is from the Canadian Newswire.

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Tembec Denies Pine Falls Workers Severance, EI and Workplace Rights:
WINNIPEG, Dec. 23 /CNW/ - Locked-out members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 3 - 1375, at the Tembec Manitoba Newsprint operations in Powerview-Pine Falls, unanimously rejected a company proposal Tuesday to change the lockout to a layoff if workers agreed to defer severance pay and give up their employment security rights unless the operations were running at 100 per cent capacity.

USW negotiators and Tembec met Tuesday with two conciliators from the Manitoba Department of Labour to possibly end the lockout that began September 1, 2009. Two hundred and sixty USW members and 20 members of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union are on the picket line in rejection of wage and contract concessions that exceed 35 per cent.

"It is clear Tembec has no interest in ending this dispute because it tabled proposals it surely must have known would be rejected outright by their employees, our members," said USW area supervisor Wayne Skrypnyk.

The USW has applied to the provincial labour board for Interest Arbitration.

Despite imposing the lockout, earlier this month Tembec admitted to the Manitoba government and the unions that it intends to either sell the newsprint mill or close it down.

"If Tembec agreed to change its lockout to a layoff, our members would be able to collect Employment Insurance," said Skrypnyk. "This would have helped the workers and the community weather the economic storm that has hit the industry."

He added: "Tembec's denial of a workable agreement that would provide workers and their families access to Employment Insurance is heartless, especially at Christmas time."
The USW represents 250,000 workers in all sectors of the Canadian economy.
For further information: Wayne Skrypnyk, USW Area Coordinator, (204) 232-7335

CANADIAN LABOUR-MANITOBA:

PINE FALLS- LATEST TEMBEC OFFER INSULTING:

A lot has been happening with the lockout at Tembec in pine falls Manitoba since Molly last blogger on the matter. I've sort of fallen behind on reporting on all the news since the company announced that the plant was up for sale. I hope to do a much fuller article later. For now, however, here's a report filed yesterday by the CBC about the latest hat trick that Tembec is attempting to foist on its locked out workers.

→→→→→→→→→→→
Mill workers angry over severance request:

Locked-out workers at the paper mill in Pine Falls, Man., are appalled by the latest concession being requested by the company, Tembec Inc.

The Montreal-based company has told the United Steelworkers union, which represents about 250 locked-out employees, that it will end the lockout if the workers wait for a period of 50 weeks before getting severance pay.

'There was some pretty colourful responses that I can't repeat on [the news]. I'd be bleeped out.'—Cam Sokoloski, United Steelworkers local president.

Cam Sokoloski, union local president, said the members haven't taken kindly to that news.
"There was some pretty colourful responses that I can't repeat on [the news]. I'd be bleeped out," he said. "Not one union member is saying this is a good thing."

Waiting that long for severance to be paid out would make it much less likely anyone would get any money at all because the industry is in turmoil and Tembec is trying to sell the Pine Falls mill, Sokoloski said.

If everyone is laid off, the severance could run as high as $10 million, he noted.

"They're basically just holding onto that money for a year and who knows if Tembec goes bankrupt or they do sell us to somebody else, well there will be no severance, right, because we'll all be back working."

The mill, about 130 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, has been idle since Sept. 1. It is the biggest employer in the community.

Contract talks between the union and the company began Aug. 13, but the two sides were unable to reach a deal. Although they continued talking after the lockout, negotiations definitively halted in October.

On Tuesday, Tembec officials announced they have decided to sell the mill rather than reopen it. If a buyer isn't found, the mill could be closed for good.

Tembec is trying to end the labour dispute to clear the way for the sale, the company said.

→→→→→→→→→→→→

Molly Notes:

I think that both the union and the company are speaking the truth here. On the company's part, well yeah, " they are "trying to end the labour dispute to clear the way for the sale". It's pretty obvious that it would have to be a very ill informed private company that would be willing to make an offer under the present conditions. What is astonishing is that they have the arrogance to expect the workers to bite at this bait. Yes, if Tembec goes bankrupt in the intervening months or if they manage to find a buyer the deferred severance pay (to at least some extent required by law) becomes smoke. Nice trick if you can pull it off. To my mind the only way that anyone could bite at this would be if the severance pay were to be put now into a GIC type account in the name of the workers to whom it is owed, with any interest (small as it might be) accumulating to the fund rather than to the company. In the absence of this Tembec is left with millions of dollars to play with and gain profit and a liability that may end up being written off. But...more on the Tembec lockout in a future post.

CANADIAN LABOUR-MANITOBA:

TEMBEC ANNOUNCES PLANT UP FOR SALE:

Earlier today Tembec, after almost 4 months of lockout against their workers announced that they planned to put their plant at Pine Falls up for sale. The announcement took pretty well everybody by surprise. Here's the basic story earlier this day from the CBC.

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Tembec to sell Pine Falls plant:
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 8, 2009 1:54 PM CT Comments26

Workers at forestry company Tembec's newsprint mill in Pine Falls, Man., are expressing relief over news the mill is up for sale.

The mill has been idle since Sept. 1 when the Montreal-based company locked out its unionized staff, represented by the United Steelworkers.

Tembec said on Tuesday that it's in the best interest of the company and its more than 250 employees to sell the mill.

That comes as a relief to Mike Dupont, a finishing and shipping supervisor, who has worked at the plant for 21 years.

The biggest problem workers had with the lockout was living under a cloud of uncertainty, Dupont said.

"Sell it to someone who maybe wants to run this place and get us back to work and do what we do best," he said. "That's what I'm very hopeful for."

Tembec said it has told the Manitoba government and the United Steelworkers that it's prepared to end the current lockout, subject to reaching an agreement on a limited number of local issues.

However, the company said won't reopen the mill, located about 130 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Prior to closing, the company had said it needed "an immediate and significant reduction" in labour costs to stay competitive in the newsprint market.

The union said it was willing to accept wage cuts, but sticking points in negotiations have been pension plan changes and severance pay.

Gary Richardson, who has worked at the mill for 31 years, said he's convinced the business can be profitable.

"The future is, mills, paper mills, newsprint mills are gonna be closing. If you can keep your cost low enough, you’re gonna stay in the game. There’s always gonna be a market for newsprint. The trick is to keep your costs low and that’s the problem right now," Richardson said.
Union caught off guard
Tuesday's announcement caught the United Steelworkers local off guard, president Cam Sokoloski said. It was just a few days ago that there was hope that the mill would reopen.

Sokoloski said on Dec. 1 that the Manitoba government offered to send a letter to Tembec urging the company to get back to work.

"[Tembec] kept telling us their intent was to run the mill," Sokoloski said Tuesday.
The company had told the union their intent was to permanently close the plant if a collective agreement couldn't be reached by January, Sokoloski added.

The union will now turn to pressuring the federal government for employment insurance benefits to see the workers through the winter, Sokoloski said. (HUH...the "request: for such a thing was already made via the "political dependency" on our provincial government. As Molly has said before this is very much like petitioning the High Lord of Hell to finance a cathedral to the Virgin Mary. Plain and simple it won't happen. What this is is "diversion" whereby someone attempts to be seem to be doing something while, in actual fact, doing nothing.)

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Our provincial government, of course, is attempting to put the best "spin" of concern about this matter, as the following item from CBC says. Our Premier has lowered himself to attend an "emergency meeting" in Pine Falls, after weeks/months of doing nothing but sending a letter to "the heart of darkness" about how workers in Pine Falls should be able to collect EI.

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Once more, our presumably "pro-labour" provincial government is trying to its best to appear to "be concerned". They have offered a $1 million "transition fund" to the workers in Pine Falls. This works out to about $3,000 per worker. Take away from this the inevitable ½ "tribute" whereby government employees get to tell the people that they are in "deep shit" ( a conservative estimate as, when dealing with natives, the 'suck it off" ratio is about 90%) and you get about $1,500 per family. That should cover their moving expenses to as far as Portage La Prairie. Here is the public relations exercise of our NDP government.

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Emergency meeting set over Tembec sale:
Manitoba kicks in $1M for 'community adjustment'
An emergency meeting will be held in Pine Falls, Man., on Tuesday for provincial officials to talk with local politicians and residents about the planned sale of a local paper mill amid a labour dispute.

Montreal-based company Tembec said earlier Tuesday it plans to sell its newsprint plant, where more than 250 unionized workers have been locked out since Sept. 1.

Tembec is the town's largest employer. The workers are represented by the United Steelworkers union.

Pine Falls Deputy Mayor Jack Shwaluk said many townspeople have spent their lives working at the mill. He worries that if it doesn't reopen it could be devastating for everyone around the community 130 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

"I'm not sure how successful they'll be in finding jobs elsewhere, so the impact could be enormous — not only to the families, but to the businesses and to the entire community," Shwaluk said.

"If this mill should shut down, it would be very, very devastating to the area."

In the wake of Tuesday's news, Manitoba has set aside $1 million for a "community adjustment committee" to set up projects that will aid workers heading into an uncertain future.

Jennifer Howard, provincial labour minister, said the closure of the mill is a "traumatic event" for workers.

"We will do everything we can to help them cope with the impact," Howard said in a release.
Premier Greg Selinger will speak at the meeting, scheduled for 4 p.m. CT.

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MOLLY OPINION:

Previously on this blog Molly has praised the actions of unionists in BC who have moved to take over their workplace under a producers' cooperative SEE HERE. To say the least all things are context dependent. Workers' takeovers of enterprises are best done in good economic times. The idea of workers in Pine Falls advancing this idea now would merely guarantee the highest price that Tembec might ask. Tembec would have few other buyers. My first thought is that the asking price should be reduced by an immediate occupation of the workplace. If for no other reason except punishment. I doubt that the workers involved are so determined as to go to these lengths, but I would recommend it to them as the best bargaining tool that they have left to them. As to how they will bargain with the provincial government, I will leave that up to common sense ie don't trust the conservative opposition. I have no great plans that people in Pine Falls could follow. Commentators on the references above have offered their own opinions, some of which involve a workers' cooperative. I urge the reader to peruse them. for myself I am doubtful in this case. What I would say is that the provincial government's "transitional funds" are totally insufficient, and that they shouldn't be allowed to get away so cheaply from a situation that they intended to betray in the first place.