Relief effort begins for millworkers

A relief effort for hundreds of idled Great Northern Paper Inc. workers and their families gained momentum Wednesday as the monthlong work stoppage at the northern Maine mills continued with no end in sight.

Thousands of dollars have been donated and the first truckload of food is scheduled to be delivered Monday to Millinocket and East Millinocket, where the mills are located. Church groups, lawmakers and assistance organizations are working to ease the burden of those affected by GNP’s shutdown and bankruptcy.

Efforts also are under way to ensure that the 1,100 workers who have been laid off have enough heating oil in their tanks as a severe cold snap kept its icy grip on the state.

The temperature plummeted to minus-9 degrees Wednesday morning in Millinocket and only got as high as 3 above a day earlier, the National Weather Service said.

“The mood is somber,” state Rep. Joseph Clark, one of several lawmakers who are helping to coordinate the relief effort, said of his fellow Millinocket residents.

Work stopped at Great Northern when two paper machines were shut down shortly before Christmas. On Jan. 9, the company filed for protection from creditors in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Behind-the-scenes efforts continued Wednesday to find a buyer for the idled mills.

“Our number one priority is to get the people back to work as soon as possible,” said Clark, a Democrat. He noted that some millworkers have been laid off since August.

By Wednesday afternoon, paper companies, unions, relief agencies and trade groups were coordinating efforts to help the paper workers.

MeadWestvaco Corp., a paper company in Rumford, donated $5,000 for food purchases, said Peter Crockett of AFL-CIO Community Services. United Way of Eastern Maine kicked in $2,500 to purchase a truckload of food, which will be delivered Monday.

The food will be distributed by two local organizations, Tri-Town Food Pantry and I Care Ministries, Crockett said.

The Episcopal Diocese of Maine this week established the Millinocket Emergency Outreach Fund.

Members of the 67 Episcopal congregations in Maine and others are being asked to contribute to the fund.

The program will provide vouchers for fuel oil, groceries and prescription drugs. St. Andrew’s Church in Millinocket plans to begin issuing vouchers after Thursday, Feb. 6.

“We are overwhelmed that the people in the diocese of Maine are willing to give of their resources and that the diocesan office is willing to take on the administrative work,” said the Rev. Lance Almeida, rector of St. Andrew’s. “That will take a tremendous burden off of our shoulders and allow us to focus on being a pastoral, supporting presence to the people in our community.”

In addition to the fund, Episcopal churches will collect nonperishable food items and essentials such as laundry soap, toilet paper and diapers on Sunday, Feb. 2. On Tuesday, Feb. 4, volunteers will pick up donations in Kennebunk, Portland, Augusta, Brewer and Houlton before making their way to St. Andrew’s.

Almeida said Wednesday that 10 percent of the congregation’s members work in GNP’s paper mills and another 10 percent are retirees. The minister said the church’s efforts are not designed to assist its members, but to reach out to the entire community, which will be economically devastated if the mills don’t reopen.

Donations to the Millinocket Emergency Outreach Fund can be made to the Diocese of Maine-Millinocket Outreach and sent to the Bishop’s Office, 143 State St., Portland 04101. For information about the fund and food-donation effort visit the diocesan Web site at www. diomaine.org.

Donations of food and other items may be dropped off at local Episcopal churches.

In addition, money is being collected to help homeowners who are in danger of running short on fuel oil amid unforgiving winter temperatures, said Rep. Ronald Usher, former vice president of the carpenters’ union at the Sappi mill in Westbrook.

Word of the effort was going out to paperworkers in other Maine mill towns, such as Bucksport and Skowhegan, said Usher. Discussions were being held Wednesday with representatives of oil dealers in hopes of setting up a program to help idled workers who need heating assistance, the Westbrook Democrat said.

Clark said he is introducing legislation to focus state agencies’ relief efforts on the needs of the northern Maine paperworkers.

On Thursday, AFL-CIO representatives plan to meet with general assistance officials from the two mill towns and Medway and career-training specialists.