Workers in Grand Falls-Windsor say they would rather see the town's mill shut down than continue on under Abitibi-Bowater's new restructuring plan.

Harvey Howse, a mechanic who has worked with an Abitibi-Bowater contractor for more than 10 years, told CBC News he's simply tired of living in limbo.

"They should come back with another proposal, and come back today with something more reasonable. Or shut down and get out of dodge," Howse said.

The paper mill in the central Newfoundland town is one of the region's largest employers, with 450 unionized workers.

Under a restructuring plan released to workers in August, Abitibi-Bowater proposed cutting 171 jobs in an effort to make the mill economically viable in a struggling paper market, and turning portions of the operations, including the woodlands division over to outside contractors.

Howse said the company's restructuring plan is ludicrous. As a member of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union which represents the mill workers, he would be rehired by a contractor, but that doesn't give him much security.

"It's in their court that after 30 days, if we don't meet their expectations, we are finished. They can hire somebody else," Howse said.

Howse and his co-worker, Dave Kellough, repair the trucks and equipment used to harvest the forest to feed the mill.

Under the company's restructuring plan, much of that equipment, which is owned by private contractors, would become obsolete.

Abitibi-Bowater is proposing the wood be chipped in the forest, and then brought to the mill, which would force the contractors to invest in new machines.

"We've catered to them, to bring them this product, and yet they turn around and say halfway through the game 'well, this is the way we want to change it, and you're no longer needed for that,'" Kellough said.

He said the new plan essentially strips the workers' contract of all the security and benefits they have worked years to achieve. He said no one would agree to work under those conditions.

The union presented the restructuring plan to its members over a series of meetings. The workers voted 92 per cent reject the plan as offered, but what that means for the future of the mill is unclear.