Talks for a new contract for Kamloops-area mill workers will be picking up again next month.

The United Steelworkers Union and the Interior Forest Labor Relations Association will meet for three days in Kelowna, from May 15 to 17.

Local union president Marty Gibbons says the union is focused on completing an agreement to bring to mill workers for a vote.

“When you represent close to 2,000 workers, you have a number of different people with a number of different opinions, and the most difficult thing in my job is trying to find the middle ground, which can be extremely difficult sometimes. Our members are ready for this to be over I believe, but the bottom line is that’s their decision to make.”

Mill workers in the Southern Interior have been without a contract since July 1 of last year.

Gibbons says mill workers in northern B.C. recently agreed on a new contract, and he says that will be a point of reference. He says that deal was retroactive to July 1 of last year and included signing bonuses and a two per cent wage increase for July 1 of this year.

“It would be silly of us not to acknowledge that the same employers in the north have come to this agreement. The bottom line is this, we need to get the deal to the members for a vote, because they’re the only people who matter. Their decision is what matters, not our decision.”