Lincoln millworkers back on the job

LINCOLN – For the first time in almost six months, more than 100 workers began punching the time clock again at the town’s paper mill, the newly named Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co.

Steam was spewing from at least two pipes, a visible sign that the mill was gearing up to produce tissue again after the prolonged shutdown. One tissue machine will go on line Thursday.

By mid-August, 360 people will be on the job again handling production at two tissue and two paper machines as well as the pulping operation.

“It’s been a long time,” said Mike Gerry after he slipped his time card into the clock around 6:45 a.m. “All these people are ready to come back.”

The mill’s new owner, First Paper Holding LLC of South Norwalk, Conn., completed its $23.725 million purchase of bankrupt Eastern Pulp and Paper Co. on Friday. Besides the Lincoln mill, Eastern Pulp owned Eastern Fine Paper Co. in Brewer and a corporate office in Amherst, Mass.

Only the Lincoln mill will be reopened.

More than 20 politicians and state and local government officials arrived at Lincoln Paper’s gate shortly after 6 a.m. Tuesday to greet the returning workers. The employees at times couldn’t figure out how to get through the crowd blocking the security room where the time clock is located.

For a few of the workers, the sight of the welcoming committee brought an emotional onslaught of relief, a form of validation that they actually were going back to work.

Near some parked cars, away from the group of bystanders, millworker Brenda Millett started crying when she saw Gov. John Baldacci standing in front of her.

She reached for his hand and asked him to “hold on” while she tried to stop the tears.

“I’m usually not an emotional person,” she told Baldacci. “Thank you so, so much for getting our jobs back.”

Baldacci wrapped his arms around her and gave her a hug.

“I’m usually not an emotional person either,” he said. Tears were evident in his eyes.

During the last few months, Baldacci held meetings of Eastern Pulp’s creditors and prospective buyers in his office to try to get them to come to an agreement to sell the company through the bankruptcy court process.

A federal bankruptcy judge in February ordered Eastern Pulp to be liquidated after it racked up more than $10 million in debt while under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors. In March, the judge ordered the properties be abandoned after a sale fell apart.

Then the eventual new owners were called. Two months later, the sale was completed.

The entire process was the business equivalent of “mission impossible,” John Wissmann, one of the mill’s new owners, said Tuesday.

“This whole deal was about perseverance – about getting it done,” he said.

At about 7:15 a.m., when the workers were inside the mill preparing for a daylong orientation session, Baldacci formally introduced the mill’s new owners to the crowd that had gathered to share the morning meet-and-greet with him.

Alongside Wissmann was co-owner Keith Van Scotter, who will be president of the mill. He plans to move to Lincoln from his home in Tacoma, Wash. Also in attendance were Paul Cottone and Steve Caren of Textron Financial of Providence, R.I. Textron is financing part of the sale.

“This is a very important day in Maine,” Baldacci said. “It’s a very important day because people are going back to work and if people are going back to work, their families are stronger and the state is stronger. They’re going to be making money here and you guys are going to be very successful.”