Papermaking at Domtar ends 150 workers to lose jobs in Baileyville

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BAILEYVILLE – It’s the end of the line for a 101-year-old paper machine and 150 workers now that Montreal-based Domtar Corp. has announced it is permanently shutting down its papermaking operation here.

The pulp production side of the mill, which makes raw material for global paper markets, will continue to operate and still employ about 300 people, according to company officials Tuesday.

In addition to the mill in Baileyville, Domtar announced it was permanently closing its mill in Gatineau, Quebec, as well as its converting center in Ottawa. It also said it planned to close its paper machine at its mill in Port Edwards, Wis.

“In total, these closures will eliminate approximately 284,000 tons of Domtar’s annual production capacity and reduce its total work force by approximately 430 people,” according to a company press release. The company employs nearly 14,000 people on both sides of the international border.

In June, when Domtar first announced it was shutting down the paper machine in Baileyville because of poor market conditions, affected employees were still holding out hope it would be temporary, as has been the case many times in the past.

But several factors have conspired against the mill which has been producing paper since 1906, company spokesman Scott Beal said Tuesday.

Since 1990, Beal said, Domtar has seen a 20 percent decline in the North American market for uncoated free-sheet paper.

“Paper isn’t being consumed as it has been historically,” he said, referring to businesses using less paper and more e-mail or other technologies to communicate.

Increasing foreign imports and postal rates also have affected sales, Beal said.

“All of those things have now driven us to a point where we have excess capacity,” he said.

The Baileyville mill also has been working with an antique paper machine and there was never any indication that Domtar, which bought the mill from Georgia-Pacific in 2001, planned to replace it.

“The fact is that a world-class uncoated free-sheet machine today is at least twice the size of our machine’s capacity. Some of them are three times the size and that also is one of the factors that played into today’s announcement,” Beal said Tuesday.

Workers were told of the permanent shutdown after they were called to a meeting at the mill Tuesday morning.

As they left the mill some workers said they had suspected it would happen while others said they had been waiting for notification to return to work.

“I’m pissed off,” said Billy Doten, a fourth-generation millworker and chief steward for Local 26 of the United Steelworkers. “Basically, you have a lot of people now who are going to be unemployed and it’s a hard thing to go through.”

Robert Phelan, a second-generation millworker and recording secretary for the United Steelworkers Union, said he suspected something bad was going to happen. He said he had spoken to a salaried official before Tuesday to find out whether the company planned to start up in August.

“He said, ‘I would not be surprised if we didn’t start back up at all,'” Phelan said.

The two men said they were concerned about the future because no one had provided details about what kind of assistance would be made available. Both also said they were thinking about going back to school.

Phelan said the Bush administration needed to move quickly to help workers. “Whatever benefits employees need, they need now because school doesn’t start next year, it starts now,” he said.

U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins said in a prepared release that they were working with the U.S. Department of Labor to ensure that Domtar’s petition for federal Trade Adjustment Assistance was quickly reviewed.

“The purpose of the TAA program is to aid workers who lose their jobs or whose hours of work and wages decrease as a result of increased imports,” the press release said. “If the TAA petition is approved, displaced Domtar workers will be eligible for employment retraining in another job or career, income support, job search allowance and relocation services for individuals who obtain jobs outside of their normal communities area.”

The two senators also said they were working with the Maine Department of Labor to expedite a request for a National Emergency Grant that would allow Maine to better assist the affected workers.

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud said his office was working with the Maine Department of Labor to deploy its Rapid Response Team to provide relief for the affected workers.

John Richardson, head of the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development, said Tuesday he planned to convene a meeting by the end of the week with state and local officials as well as developers of two proposed liquefied natural gas terminals and a company that wants to make construction-grade house and commercial building panels to talk about future employment opportunities for the displaced millworkers.

But mostly it was a black Tuesday for many of the affected employees.

“I feel lousy,” said Norman Clark, 64, of Baileyville. He has worked for the company for 38 years. Clark said that ever since the company announced the shutdown in June, he suspected the machine might not start up again. He had high praise for his co-workers. “We have some of the best papermakers in the world right here,” he said.

Tim Jundt, 43, a papermaker with 21 years’ experience, said he has been preparing for the worst for more than a year. “The biggest thing that I saw and I tried to tell people [was that the company has] not put in any capital into us for four or five years,” he said. After he was first laid off in June, Jundt decided to diversify and bought a fitness center franchise in Brewer. “There are a lot of guys that I really feel bad for who were saying that ‘I think we’ll go back,'” he said. “I said, ‘Guys, this is different, I am telling you this is the end.'”

The paychecks will be difficult to replace because Domtar paid well, he said.

Jundt said he made $25 an hour. “I was a back tender. So then you had the machine tender who was probably making around $27. Then there was overtime,” he said.

Craig Croman of Baileyville worked for the former Georgia-Pacific Corp. oriented board plant for 20 years before that facility was shut down. He has worked for the paper mill for more than five years.

Croman said he was not surprised by the news. “This industry is dying. They are not putting any money in these mills so it was just a matter of time,” he said. “I told my wife six months ago that she better plan on me having a different job because this wasn’t going to be here much longer.”

Croman said he wasn’t pointing the finger of blame at anyone locally. “I don’t hold any local people accountable for this. This is a decision made somewhere else, and I think it is something you experience now and you just have to move on,” he said. Asked what he planned to do next, Croman said he planned to take his wife and children to the beach on Tuesday.

Baileyville Town Manager Scott Harriman said the town also would take a hit. He said Domtar pays about 71 percent of the town’s taxes, and he was uncertain how the shutdown would affect the town’s tax base.

“I am anticipating that cash flow is going to be impacted when tax bills go out in November,” he said. “Domtar is our largest taxpayer, and I am anticipating that there are going to be some changes in the town of Baileyville. … It would be ludicrous for me to sit here and tell you that we are not going to have to cut services.”

Calais City Manager Diane Barnes said the layoffs would affect her city, but that the city stood ready to help displaced workers any way it could.