Story Photos
 New father, new homeowner and newly laid-off Fibre worker Josh Masters, 24, talks about his options Tuesday after attending a meeting at the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 153 hall in Longview. Bill Wagner / The Daily News
|
Fibre Fallout
Wednesday, January 9, 2008 7:47 AM PST
By Erik Olson
Printable version
E-mail this articleFor Mike and Christine Hayden, the layoffs at Longview Fibre were a nasty case of deja vu.
Last fall, Christine Hayden was one of the 135 employees left without a job when the Fleetwood plant in Woodland closed. Then, four days before Christmas, Mike Hayden received notice that he would be laid off from his job at the east mill at the beginning of the year as part of Fibre's planned workforce reductions.
On Tuesday, the Longview couple were at the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Local 153 hall to learn more about their options. For now, they've got a cushion of about six months of state unemployment. But for the long term, Mike Hayden, 33, said he'd like to get training for a different field, something with greater demand.
"I would like to get into something that's going to be in need later on," Hayden said.
About 60 to 70 current and former Fibre employees were at their union's headquarters Tuesday morning to learn about benefits and retraining options. It was the last of three rapid response meetings hosted by the Washington State Labor Council to help laid-off Fibre workers, and those who fear their jobs could be cut later, get back on their feet.
"I think it went well. A lot of information," said Roger Fisher, the union's president.
On Sunday, Fibre shut down its Nos. 2 and 8 paper machines in a cost-saving move. With the shutdowns, first announced in October, 170 hourly and 30 salaried jobs will be cut by the middle of this year and another 100 positions by 2010. Since December, about 75 employees have been laid off, and more will come as the machine operations are curtailed, according to Fibre officials.
About 50 of the 110 eligible older employees accepted an early retirement buyout offer, which lessened the total number of layoffs.
Before it was sold to a Toronto-based firm earlier this year, Fibre's pulp and paper operations frequently lost millions of dollars each quarter. The planned job reductions, which affect about a quarter of the mill's work force, are an attempt to make the pulp and paper operations profitable again.
After 80 years of local ownership by the Wollenberg family, Fibre's manufacturing plants and timberlands were sold in April to the Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management for $2.15 billion.
Tuesday's meeting featured representatives from the state labor council, WorkSource and the Lower Columbia College's retraining program. A Daily News reporter and photographer were not allowed inside the union hall during the meeting but were able to interview workers outside as they left.
Mike Hayden's brother, 29-year-old Dan Hayden, said he's looking to get a commercial driver's license now, but he doesn't have any definitive plans. He knows he has to find other work soon, though.
"Can't really afford to go too long," said Dan Hayden, who lives in Kelso.
Josh Masters, 24, has a 6-month-old son and just bought a house with his wife when he got the news he was losing his job after three years working on the paper machines at the mill.
"It's going to be tough, but I think I'll be all right. Maybe," Masters said.
He'd like to try another field, maybe as an electrician's apprentice. But that's a five-year program, and Masters said he doesn't like relying on government unemployment aid for very long.
"I don't really like being on the system," Masters said.
Working through state and federal agencies to find help and retraining is one of the biggest challenges facing workers now, said Joe Hobson, who is with Lower Columbia College's worker retraining program.
WorkSource, the state's employment agency, is the first step, Hobson said. But once workers take care of their basic financial needs, the college has training available in a wide variety of technical fields, from mechanics to welding to heavy equipment operations, he said. There's even a program available for the pulp and paper industry, Hobson said.
Rob Covel, 44, learned on Christmas Eve, along with Dan Hayden, that he would be out of work as a beater room hedger after three years at Fibre. A former teacher at the Columbia Heights Christian School, Covel said he'd heard other mills in the area might be interested in hiring former Fibre employees, so he might try to stay in the pulp and paper business.
For now, though, Covel said he and his family are living on savings.
"We're kind of keeping our options open," he said.
Past Month's Most Commented Stories