BANGOR – Unemployment and layoffs, it seems, now may be old hat for some local workers.

The 106 people who were laid off in the wake of Red Shield Environmental LLC’s bankruptcy filing last month were among the topics of conversation Monday morning at a Penobscot County Transition Team meeting.

Jennifer Brooks, community relations manager for the Penquis agency, said about 60 workers from the Old Town pulp manufacturing facility attended unemployment filing information sessions last week.

Other than those people, however, neither Brooks nor representatives from the offices of U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins who attended Monday’s meeting have heard from many Red Shield workers seeking help.

“I think … [those who didn’t attend the sessions] know the process of getting unemployment,” Brooks said. “I think it’s early on, they’re still getting their last paycheck, and they’ve been through it before. It’s a lot different than being shocked and never having had to ask for assistance.”

Red Shield filed for bankruptcy June 27. The facility, which housed the former Georgia-Pacific Corp. mill until 2006, had been shut down temporarily since June 6 because of recent spikes in material and fuel costs.

The transition team, which consists of representatives from local agencies and organizations that seek to guide laid-off workers, also met in East Millinocket Monday for a discussion about possible layoffs at the Katahdin Paper Co. LLC mill in neighboring Millinocket.

“For some of these guys, this isn’t just the second time. This is their third or their fourth,” said Gail Kelly, the state director for Snowe’s office. “With the mills, because the [workers] already have that training, the next mill is willing to take them and they’ll follow, but they might have to go through the same process all over again.”

The number of people seeking assistance after the Red Shield closing could rise if the facility does not reopen, Brooks said, as winter approaches and fuel costs remain high.

More workers may ask for help as small employers that do business with larger companies feel the effects of closures.

The effect would hit not only cities such as Old Town, but also surrounding areas where workers live.

Although people recently made unemployed by Red Shield were the immediate concern, Kelly and Collins staffer Michael Noyes said calls to their offices from all worried Maine residents have gone up along with rising costs.

“It’s the general public,” Kelly said. “It’s such a cycle that they’re in already. It’s scary.”

Other local companies that have closed, are in the process of closing, or had to lay off workers include Gagne Precast, DHL, Elizabeth Levenson Center, World Over Imports and Linens ‘n Things.

The transition team will meet again July 28, at which time the group should know more about both the situations in Old Town and Millinocket. The team is trying to organize more seminars in August and a job fair in October at the Bangor Auditorium.

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

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