Paper Workers To Vote On Strike

Potlatch Corp. paper workers will vote today whether to authorize a strike.

Labor contract negotiations apparently reached an impasse last week, a United Paperworkers International Union hotline said.

Randy Hammond, the president of one of the two United Paperworkers International unions representing Potlatch workers, said the company made an offer on a contract and workers will be voting whether to accept it.

Hammond said he could not talk about details of the contract before they were explained to union workers at one of three meetings scheduled this afternoon and evening.

He also said he could not say when a labor strike, if authorized by union membership, would begin.

A one-year contract for some 1,200 Potlatch Corp. workers expired Sept. 1. Contractor negotiators for the company and for the labor union met Oct. 2 through a mediator, the information hotline said.

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