Mill layoffs: Georgia-Pacific announces cuts in Camas
Friday, November 17, 2006
By JULIA ANDERSON and JONATHAN NELSON, Columbian Staff Writers
CAMAS — Reality replaced rumors at the Georgia-Pacific pulp and paper mill Friday when the company announced plans to lay off 300 workers.
Mill management and union leadership, as well as corporate representatives, met throughout the day with workers to explain the mill’s restructuring agenda. Plans call for the shutdown of three of five paper machines and a pulp-making line that will take the mill work force from 800 to 500 over the next six to 12 months.
“The loss of these jobs is a sad thing,” said Jock Moszter, president of the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers, Local 5, which represents hourly mill workers. “These are good people. We’re hoping that this area’s employers will step up and hire them.”
Average annual pay for the mill’s hourly workers is $60,000.
Mike Tompkins, mill manager, said that despite the cutback, Georgia-Pacific intends to stay in Camas.
The mill will continue to make pulp to support production of a variety of white communications papers sold under such brand names as Eureka! and Xerox. A paper-towel-making machine will make premium brands enMotion and Rollmaster.
“These are great assets … technically up-to-date equipment with some of the best workers in the industry,” Tompkins said. “These workers will take the remaining operation well into the future. We have no plans to sell this site or sell the business,” he said.
‘Fairly old’ machines
Robert Burns, a G-P spokesman, traveled from the company’s Atlanta headquarters to help deliver the news to workers who gathered on production floors inside the sprawling 656-acre mill site.
The machines being discontinued produce tissue and towel products such as Angel Soft tissue and Costco brand towels. Tompkins described the machines as “fairly old and relatively small” compared to industry standards.
Burns emphasized that the cutbacks were not the result of the sale of G-P to Koch Industries late last year, but of an internal evaluation that began in mid-2005.
“It’s a matter of having the right equipment in the right place to serve the customer base,” Burns said. Since early this year, G-P has been rolling out similar cutbacks and changes throughout its U.S. operations. This week, according to The Florida Times-Union, Georgia-Pacific announced cuts at a sawmill in Palatka, Fla., leaving 108 people out of work.
Burns said the towel and tissue production being eliminated in Camas will be picked up by G-P mills in Georgia and Wisconsin.
Severance packages
Union officials said negotiations with the company over severance packages for hourly workers will begin the week of Nov. 27.
Who stays and who goes will depend on how many workers take severance and on employment longevity with the mill. Those decisions will likely be made by mid-December.
Burns and Tompkins said Camas is not competing with the G-P mill in Wauna, Ore., for capital investment dollars.
In August, the company said it would spend $200 million on buildings and equipment to expand paper towel and bath tissue production there. But the product mix at Wauna is substantially different and more retail-oriented than at Camas, Tompkins said.
“I don’t know that there was ever any competition between the two sites or between the two states,” he said.
Wait is over
Friday’s announcement ended months of speculation about how many jobs were being lost and the mill’s future in a town that once depended on the company for its lifeblood.
G-P remains central to Camas. The business generates $6 million a year in property and business taxes, and the payroll is $85 million. The planned cuts represent a 40 percent reduction in the work force and will result in total annual payroll and benefits of $50 million.
Technology companies such as WaferTech and SEH America arrived in Camas two decades ago and have helped ease the area’s revenue reliance on Georgia-Pacific. Still, feelings are mixed. The mill has ties to the town that date back to the 1800s. Generations of families have punched time cards at the mill.
“The general feeling around the mill is one of loss,” said Moszter, the union president. “It’s scary to think about losing jobs. But it’s good to get this out, so people can plan their lives.”
To read the official announcement, click here: www.columbian.com/news/localNews/millstatement.cfm
By JULIA ANDERSON and JONATHAN NELSON, Columbian Staff Writers
CAMAS — Reality replaced rumors at the Georgia-Pacific pulp and paper mill Friday when the company announced plans to lay off 300 workers.
Mill management and union leadership, as well as corporate representatives, met throughout the day with workers to explain the mill’s restructuring agenda. Plans call for the shutdown of three of five paper machines and a pulp-making line that will take the mill work force from 800 to 500 over the next six to 12 months.
“The loss of these jobs is a sad thing,” said Jock Moszter, president of the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers, Local 5, which represents hourly mill workers. “These are good people. We’re hoping that this area’s employers will step up and hire them.”
Average annual pay for the mill’s hourly workers is $60,000.
Mike Tompkins, mill manager, said that despite the cutback, Georgia-Pacific intends to stay in Camas.
The mill will continue to make pulp to support production of a variety of white communications papers sold under such brand names as Eureka! and Xerox. A paper-towel-making machine will make premium brands enMotion and Rollmaster.
“These are great assets … technically up-to-date equipment with some of the best workers in the industry,” Tompkins said. “These workers will take the remaining operation well into the future. We have no plans to sell this site or sell the business,” he said.
‘Fairly old’ machines
Robert Burns, a G-P spokesman, traveled from the company’s Atlanta headquarters to help deliver the news to workers who gathered on production floors inside the sprawling 656-acre mill site.
The machines being discontinued produce tissue and towel products such as Angel Soft tissue and Costco brand towels. Tompkins described the machines as “fairly old and relatively small” compared to industry standards.
Burns emphasized that the cutbacks were not the result of the sale of G-P to Koch Industries late last year, but of an internal evaluation that began in mid-2005.
“It’s a matter of having the right equipment in the right place to serve the customer base,” Burns said. Since early this year, G-P has been rolling out similar cutbacks and changes throughout its U.S. operations. This week, according to The Florida Times-Union, Georgia-Pacific announced cuts at a sawmill in Palatka, Fla., leaving 108 people out of work.
Burns said the towel and tissue production being eliminated in Camas will be picked up by G-P mills in Georgia and Wisconsin.
Severance packages
Union officials said negotiations with the company over severance packages for hourly workers will begin the week of Nov. 27.
Who stays and who goes will depend on how many workers take severance and on employment longevity with the mill. Those decisions will likely be made by mid-December.
Burns and Tompkins said Camas is not competing with the G-P mill in Wauna, Ore., for capital investment dollars.
In August, the company said it would spend $200 million on buildings and equipment to expand paper towel and bath tissue production there. But the product mix at Wauna is substantially different and more retail-oriented than at Camas, Tompkins said.
“I don’t know that there was ever any competition between the two sites or between the two states,” he said.
Wait is over
Friday’s announcement ended months of speculation about how many jobs were being lost and the mill’s future in a town that once depended on the company for its lifeblood.
G-P remains central to Camas. The business generates $6 million a year in property and business taxes, and the payroll is $85 million. The planned cuts represent a 40 percent reduction in the work force and will result in total annual payroll and benefits of $50 million.
Technology companies such as WaferTech and SEH America arrived in Camas two decades ago and have helped ease the area’s revenue reliance on Georgia-Pacific. Still, feelings are mixed. The mill has ties to the town that date back to the 1800s. Generations of families have punched time cards at the mill.
“The general feeling around the mill is one of loss,” said Moszter, the union president. “It’s scary to think about losing jobs. But it’s good to get this out, so people can plan their lives.”
To read the official announcement, click here: www.columbian.com/news/localNews/millstatement.cfm
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