Western.

• Position: Thieman Metals - Carolinas HealthCare System - Brief article

Contract doesn't read like pulp friction

Workers and management at Blue Ridge Paper in Canton (cover story, July 2005) have agreed on a three-year contract that provides pay increases and a guarantee that employees will keep their jobs if the company is sold. The primary investor, New York-based KPS Special Situations Fund, says it has a potential buyer. Managers say an unusual clause in the contract protects a buyer from needing to negotiate a new contract before 2009. Approximately 1,000 employees make envelope paper, paperboard for food packaging and other products in Canton at an average wage of about $45,000. The new contract will increase that annually by 4%, 3% and 3%. The contract also covers about 500 Blue Ridge workers in Ohio, Iowa and Georgia.

ELLENBORO -- Thieman Metals, which employs about 50 at a plant here, will expand and add 32 jobs if the state Department of Commerce approves a $475,000 grant to provide it with natural-gas and sewer services. The factory opened in 1998 and fabricates metal for...