 PORTLAND, Maine (From The Bangor Daily News) -- Supercalendered papermaker Madison Paper Industries plans to shut down by May and lay off about 214 employees.
The partners in the Madison mill, Finland-based UPM-Kymmene Inc. and New York Times Co. subsidiary Northern SC Paper Corp., announced the shutdown and end of their joint venture Monday.
"Despite everyone's best efforts, the difficult decision has been made to cease paper production at Madison," Ruud van den Berg, senior vice president of UPM Paper's Europe and North America divisions, said. "Demand for supercalendered papers declined significantly in 2015 and the decline is expected to continue The Madison mill is not cost-competitive and has lost a significant amount of sales in the recent past."
The company said some employees will stay on past May to maintain buildings and operate a 27-megawatt hydropower generation facility that the company plans to sell.
An assistant for Russ Drechsel, president and CEO of Madison Paper, said he would be in meetings with mill staff until about 9 p.m. Monday and was not available for comment.
The Maine Department of Labor said it has assigned a team to help workers through the closure and plans to request money through a federal program for people who have lost their jobs due primarily to foreign competition.
"Our team can answer questions families will have over the next two months and help them plan for this transition," Commissioner of Labor Jeanne Paquette said in a news release. "Our assistance is not limited to unemployment benefits, but includes information about health insurance options, career planning, training support and job search guidance."
The department said the company on Monday would issue a notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide at least 60 days of notice for plant closings or mass layoffs.
The Waterville Morning Sentinel reported in January that the mill had cut back production from seven days to five, in an arrangement that employees were told would be temporary.
The announcement comes after Madison and Verso Corp. successfully petitioned federal trade officials for tariffs on Canadian imports of supercalendered paper, used in color printing applications, including magazines, retail inserts, directories and coupons.
Public and company officials cheered that decision, saying it would help Madison chip away at competition from Canadian papermakers, which they said undercut them by as much as 5.2 percent in the last half of 2014.
Gov. Paul LePage said in a news release from the Department of Labor that he is "saddened" by the news and said "this unfortunate situation illustrates the challenge Maine companies face in the national and global marketplace."
He added it provides a reason for his administration's call for lowering taxes and working to lower energy costs.
Rep. Jeff McCabe, D-Skowhegan, and Sen. Rodney Whittemore, R-Skowhegan, both lamented the news in statements issued Monday. Whittemore said the announcement was "upsetting news for our entire region" and called for a focus on helping the mill's employees.
McCabe said he "met with workers just last week and heard no hint of this."
Verso, which owns a mill in Jay, is reorganizing after a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. |
