MADAWASKA – Thirty-six employees of Fraser Papers Inc. at Madawaska will lose their jobs this weekend through involuntary layoffs as part of a 160-worker layoff the company announced two months ago.

As many as 45 other workers have agreed to early retirement buyouts, and there is the possibility of 24 other buyouts. Only one worker among the 70 identified for early retirement buyouts has refused the offer so far, according to state officials who held a press conference Thursday afternoon at the Fraser Guest House at Madawaska.

While there is still the possibility of 54 job terminations in the next three months, Maine Commissioner of Economic and Community Development John Richardson said Thursday that those jobs could be saved by state and company initiatives discussed earlier in the day among state, union and mill officials.

After this latest round of layoffs, Fraser’s Madawaska operation will be left with 680 employees, down from 1,245 employees just 10 years ago. The Madawaska mill, like others across North America, have been reducing their numbers of employees over the last decade while looking for ways to make their businesses viable.

State assistance will include the development of new niche markets for the papermaking company, including new products, cross-training of employees including those still targeted for potential layoff, and training for laid-off personnel. Officials said that new training for laid-off workers will assist them in acquiring jobs at the mill as older employees leave work through retirement in the coming years.

“It’s important for the area not to lose its work force,” Richardson said. “We also want to assure people that we want to create an environment to help the industry become more innovative.

“We are looking at programs for short-term assistance to laid-off workers, reducing further job cuts through cross-training, and assisting the industry to become more innovative in the long term,” he said. “This is all part of a state-created pulp and paper cluster to work toward innovation to keep the eight or nine pulp and paper mills we have in Maine viable.”

Richardson and Commissioner of Labor Laura Fortman said that after meeting with union and mill management for nearly two hours, they believe in a plan to eliminate the need for further layoffs.

Fortman said a comprehensive solution is being worked on, and the local state Career Center at Madawaska is ready to assist workers who are losing their jobs.

“We are concerned for laid-off workers, and we are ready to offer support to them,” she said. “That includes assistance while they are being trained for jobs at the mill and in the area.”

Rosaire Pelletier, a former comptroller at Fraser’s and now a consultant for the state on the pulp and paper industry, said Maine’s $10 billion pulp and paper industry needs to think outside the box.

“I am hopeful we can come up with a program to help Fraser and the industry,” he said. “The industry is salvageable, but innovative changes have to be made.”

State Rep. Kenneth Theriault, D-Madawaska, a retired Fraser employee, said the Fraser problem is one “close to my heart.” Theriault wants the pulp and paper industry across the state to prosper.

“We need to look to the future,” he said. “I will make every effort at the legislative level with bills to help Fraser employees and millworkers across the state.”

The Fraser layoff announcement came in the closing days of the last legislative session, a time when nothing could be done, he said. Theriault said people have to realize that every mill job supports six to eight other jobs in the community.