The newly created New England Loggers Cooperative has entered into an agreement with a paper mill in Quebec that calls for any lumber from Maine to be cut and shipped by Maine workers.

Senate President Troy Jackson said a “majority” of softwood cut in northern Maine goes to the Materiaux Blanchet Inc. mill in Quebec. He said Thursday the agreement “just makes sense.”

A bill sponsored by Jackson was adopted in the last legislative session allowing loggers and logging truck drivers to organize into cooperatives. Gov. Janet Mills signed it into law.

Jackson, a Democrat from Allagash, said that for too long the wood products industry “has been missing the voices of hardworking harvesters and haulers.”