Union rejects FPI offer

Fisheries Products International plant workers in Newfoundland and Labrador overwhelmingly rejected the company's latest contract offer,voting 98 per cent against it.

The Fish, Food and Allied Workers union says the company wants to gut the contract, making demands such as a$2 an hour wage rollback, a pay cut workers say they aren't willing to take.

Of the 769 plant workers who voted in ballots ending Wednesday, only10 were willing to accept the contract.

Negotiations have dragged on for most of a year between FPI and the FFAW, which represents the company's 2,000 employees. FPI warnedit would keep the plant in Marystown, on the province's south coast, closed if workers were to reject the latest offer.

The union said workers needed a strong message to take back to the bargaining table in the new year.

"So we'll be back to the table after Christmas and we need that bullet in our gun for further negotiations," Greg Pretty of the FFAW said.

A conciliator will release his report on contract talks on Jan. 15. The union and the company are expected to meet again shortly thereafter.