Food drive to benefit laid-off mill workers

BREWER – The families of more than 30 Eastern Fine Paper mill workers laid off recently as part of the company’s reorganization strategy are the focus of a food drive Saturday morning at the Labor Temple at 20 Ayer St.

The food drive, from 8 a.m. to noon, is a joint venture of Local 403 of Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International Union, or PACE, and the Greater Bangor Central Labor Council, according to Duane Lugdon, an international PACE representative working on behalf of employees at several Maine mills.

During Tuesday night’s meeting of the Brewer City Council, Councilor Manley DeBeck Jr., an Eastern Fine employee and one of the organizers of the effort, said that many of the workers who lost their jobs are the main breadwinners of their families and most have young children at home.

In September, officials from Eastern Pulp & Paper Corp., parent company of the Eastern Fine paper mill, filed for protection from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code, a measure designed to shield the company from its creditors while it works to restructure and pay its debts. In its petition, the corporation, which also owns a mill in Lincoln, lists debts totaling $181.3 million and assets of $187.8 million. The Brewer mill accounts for $70.65 million of that debt and $73.84 million of the assets. At the time of the Chapter 11 court filing, Joseph H. Torras Sr., the company’s chairman, cited depressed printing and writing tablet markets, higher energy and raw material costs and the need for major environmental improvements as reasons for Eastern Pulp & Paper’s financial difficulties.

According to DeBeck, response from remaining mill employees has been “phenomenal.” Workers, he said, have so far contributed approximately $750 to a fund established to assist the affected families. In addition, area letter carriers and Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. employees are working to collect such items as gift certificates to help those who lost their jobs through what is shaping up as a bleak holiday season.