Dalhousie NB: Last day on The Job

The AbitibiBowater plant in Dalhousie New Brunswick is closing today and the over 300 workers will find themselves unemployed some have are in retraining but as yet no word about severance packages or pensions has reached the workers.

The last shift at the AbitbiBowaater plant in Dalhousie New Brunswick will soon end and the mill that has been an economic mainstay of the community will close its doors. The CBC reports that workers such as Billy Audfroid, 53 who has been working at the mill since he was 18 have not yet received ay word when they will see their severance packages or their pensions, Audford was only a year and a half away from when he could retire with a pension. "We're not getting much information concerning pensions or anything else. Seems everything's unknown. We're in the dark," Audfroid said. "We don't know. It's scary." Audfroid is taking a course in heavy machinery operation and has plans to move out West. Dalhousie Mayor Clem Tremblay believes that the uncertainty around the pension plans and severance packages is adding to an already stressful situation in the town of 3,600. "I don't know what's the blockage between the union and the management up there — I don't know," Tremblay said.