PASSADUMKEAG – Talks will resume today between International Paper Co. and union officials representing the small group of workers who will run a small chipping operation at the Passadumkeag mill.

Last week, IP announced it would continue to operate the Passadumkeag plant as a small chipping operation rather than closing the facility if an agreement could be reached with the union. The company plans to lay off between 233 and 239 workers at its Costigan and Passadumkeag facilities April 19, leaving small chipping operations that would employ between 24 and 30 workers at the two facilities.

Talks got off to a rocky start and even broke off at one point Wednesday when the company told union officials workers would have to take wage cuts to continue working in the chipping operation. Later, the company called union leaders back to the table.

In the meantime, union leaders are accusing IP of lying to state leaders, who have been pressuring the company to sell the two sawmills, and to the public about the related ripple effects to woodcutters and truckers.

Duane Lugdon, an international union official, said top IP executives told many of the state’s political leaders the company planned to process as much wood to make chips for its Bucksport and Jay mills as it had used to make framing studs, which would mitigate the effects on related woodcutting and trucking jobs.

“This is just more smoke and mirrors from IP to appease Maine’s political leaders,” said Lugdon. “The bottom line is that IP is just trying to comfort the public and small-business owners to think that the same supply of wood is going to be traveling down our highways, and that is an absolute lie.”

Without capital investments for new chipping equipment, Lugdon said it is physically impossible to run that much wood through the mill’s existing chipping equipment. “It cannot be done. IP is lying to the public,” he said.

Union leaders said woodcutters and truckers already are being affected because the mill no longer is producing framing studs.

Daniel Bird, a union vice president, said the mill’s existing chipping equipment could handle only about 15 truckloads of full-length logs a day, about one-third of the 47 truckloads a day that were required for the mill’s lumber and chipping operations.

Responding to the union’s accusations, Terry Gooding, an IP spokesman, said the company never claimed that maintaining a chipping operation at the Passadumkeag mill would protect the jobs of Maine loggers and truckers.

“We are going to produce as many chips as possible at Passadumkeag to ensure an adequate supply of fiber is available to our Maine paper mills,” said Gooding.

The IP spokesman said the union probably was right about the reduction in the number of logging trucks that will bring tree-length logs to the mill. “The mill currently is functional. Our expectations are that we will probably make some minor adjustments in the future to optimize chipping operations,” Gooding said.

Gooding said the company decided to maintain a chipping operation at the Passadumkeag mill to ensure a reliable quality of chips for the company’s paper mills in Bucksport and Jay. Company officials said it was becoming more difficult to purchase sufficient quantities of chips as the result of a slowdown in the Maine wood products industry caused by Canadian lumber imports.

Lugdon said if IP was worried about having chips for its Maine paper mills, a supply agreement with a private buyer or an employee buyout could be arranged. “It would be a guaranteed market. We would enjoy the opportunity to supply any of IP’s mills with chips,” said Lugdon.