CEP of Canada Takes Paper Dispute to OECD

The CEP of Canada is requesting the OECD undertake an investigation of labour practices against Finnish papermaker UPM Kymmene under the Parisbased organization’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. At UPM Kymmene’s lone Canadian mill in Miramichi, New Brunswick, the firm unilaterally announced closure of the pulp mill—chopping 400 jobs effective 31 January 2005—but also engaged in vicious anti-union behaviour. Management turned rabid after the CEP local union protested the closure on grounds the firm’s logging licenses for harvesting government lands mandates that it operate the mill. CEP charges UPM Kymmene with creating a “cold war” atmosphere of labour relations by suspending local union leaders for performing their statutory duties, monitoring and spying on workers’ activities with a hired security team, and refusing to negotiate with the union or to provide information pertinent to bargaining.