Employees Grant Wage Concessions

Workers at Omak Wood Products Inc. Saturday approved contract concessions that will roll wages back 12 percent, cut paid vacation and slash company pension contributions.

The alternative was a ruling in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that could have stripped away the pension contributions entirely, said Lloyd Groomes, business agent for the local that represents the plant’s 475 hourly workers.

Groomes added that the company also could have substituted an industry health plan for one managed by the Lumber, Plywood and Industrial Workers.

“We preferred our own,” he said, adding that the contract changes were endorsed by a thin margin.

Omak filed bankruptcy March 3, days after the union rejected a plan calling for somewhat less severe cuts to a contract implemented in 1995.

Creditor pressures and slumping prices for chips, veneer and dimensional lumber - all produced by Omak - have squeezed the company, which experienced a 22 percent drop in revenues last year compared with 1995.

Concessions approved Saturday will save Omak $3.1 million over the next 16 months. Besides the pension and wage cuts - the pay rollback will be trimmed to 10 percent after six months - the workers gave up all but one week of paid vacation.

Comparable terms imposed on the company’s 50 salaried employees will save another $500,000, President Jim Aher testified Monday in Bankruptcy Court.

Aher said the cuts were “absolutely” essential to Omak.

Aher said worker compensation is competitive with most other mills in the area.

The Monday hearing in Spokane before Judge John Rossmeissl was held to consider a company motion calling for imposition of the contract if the union did not approve the concessions.

Employees became majority owners of Omak in 1988. Hard times in the timber industry have forced repeated company reorganizations since then.

, DataTimes