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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1980)
r Panelists slam big business, mill closures Group advocates federal compensation By YVONNE BEASLEY Of the Emerald In 1977, citizens of the tiny Oregon community of Westfir, near Oakridge, felt the pangs of being a company town. The Hines lumber mill, a major em ployer of Westfir residents, shut its doors to hundreds of workers. The Hines mill closure and its aftermath are an example of the power large corporations have on many small American towns. As part of the Eugene observance of national "Big Business Day,” a seven member panel met last week in Harris Hall to discuss plant closures, using Westfir as a typical example of big-business tactics. A film about the Hines mill closure, "Company Town," was presented by one of its creators, Eugene filmmaker Chris Jensen. The half-hour documentary told the story of Westfir and of the Westfir Workers’ Association. The association, consisting of Hines millworkers who didn’t want to lose their jobs when the mill closed, tried to buy the mill from Hines. After months of uncertain negotiations with Hines, the workers were told they could not buy the mill. An international corporation, the Mitchell-Black etor company, later purchased the Hines mill and reopened it at half capacity. Some displaced workers got jobs at the area’s other mill, Pope and Talbot; many moved; others had to rely on federal assistance programs. A plant closure is a complex event. Often, unem ployment and pension benefits are not available after a plant closes — the company just folds up and moves away, taking its money along. Sometimes, the com pany has provided health services and housing as well as jobs; those disappear as well. “Corporate America has a stranglehold on the American economy,” said panel member Jim McCor mick, an officer of the retail clerks' local union. He said a plant closure, often the result of "a callous decision on the part of some corporate executive," can wreak havoc on a town. The "ripple effect” takes over after a plant clo sure, McCormick said. The closure causes economic ripples in all areas of a small town — laid-off workers cannot afford to buy as much as they did before; many move The town’s merchants suffer a drop in business, sometimes having to shut down their own stores, McCormick said, thereby creating even more unem ployment until a community is economically devas tated A town's tax base suffers when a large plant or mill shuts down — all the property and business taxes the company paid just dry up, McCormick said. Another problem is the drain on the town’s allocation for food stamp and federal aid programs. Panel members criticized big business’ control of small-town economies for nearly three hours as each panel member decried the tax breaks, unfair stock market control and monopolizing tactics available to national conglomerates. Many small plants actually make profits, said David Lerman of the University's Labor Education and Research Center, but the profits aren't big enough for the parent company, so the plant is shut down. Legislation is pending in Congress to begin reforms in plant-closure techniques, McCormick said. The legislation contains provisions for notifying Photo by Tom Detzel Daniel Pope, University history professor, spoke as part of a Big Business Day panel on mill and plant closures. workers in advance of a plant closure; federal money for workers to buy the plant as a co-op if they wish; an impact report for the surrounding community and compensation for lost wages, new job training, health services and community tax loss; most to be paid by the company. But all the legislative lobbying in the world won’t heal Westfir's present wounds. The Pope and Talbot mill recently shut down, and plant managers expect the mill to remain closed for about six months. In the meantime, hundreds of Oakridge and Westfir re sidents are unemployed. “This is the seventh recession since World War II,” said Ken Collins, panel member and second-gen eration laborer from Oakridge. "It’s obvious thaf something’s wrong. It’s going to be up to us to do something about it." Sweaters Jewelry Main Desk Gloves Books SALE LOST AND FOUND Tuesday Apr. 22, 1980 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. 108 EMU Umbrellas Misc. $600 OFF on every single pair of pants in stock for guys and gals. CAMPUS STORE ONLY 766 E. 13th 485-2491 dBS Speaker says public ownership could help allay mill closures By LARRY SUTCLIFFE Of the Emerald Every effort should be made to keep the wood products in dustry operating, said Jerry Lembcke in a Saturday work shop on mill closures. Lembcke, a Portland repre sentative from the newly formed Coalition to Save Jobs, ad dressed a small crowd at the University Law School as part of a conference on worker sur vival, sponsored by the Eugene Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Legislation is needed to allow a takeover of closed mills for public use, Lembcke said. “Management of the mills should become public proper ty,” he said. “This allows people to have more of an active role in management while assuring the plant will remain solvent. "We need county- or mun icipally-owned industry (such as EWEB),” Lembcke said. "The profits stay in the community and strengthen the community. Worker-owned industry must still buy its raw products from private industry, forcing them to keep up with a very competitive market, and it has been shown in the past that most worker owned plants don't have the capital to remain competitive.” Federally owned plants are also ineffective, Lembcke said, because they take the profits out of the community and re place private bureaucracy with federal bureaucracy. Because Lane County has publicly owned timber and en ergy, a historic opportunity ex ists to develop a municipally owned wood products industry — a first for the nation, Lembcke said Public ownership would keep the Northwest competitive in the face of a changing wood products economy, Lembcke said. Georgia Pacific is planning to move its central office to At lanta, Georgia, and it's no secret that there’s a direct link between foreign politics and plant closures, he added. "When a plant closes in Oregon, you can be sure one is opening in a Third World country. The multi-nationals are killing our unions with their overseas policies. A regime supported by U S. military inter vention is usually pro-multina tional because it benefits from the money generated by the company, and since labor is cheap and unions are nonexis tant, the large multi-nationals are eager to move in.” By publicly buying the plants abandoned by the large wood products firms, the wood indus tries’ grip on the Northwest economy can be cut, Lembcke said. “By controlling the factors of production, the energy and the timber — as well as the mills — we keep the profits in the com munity, which strengthens the community. "This will keep us competitive in the world market.” David Jennings The Progresive Alternative For Eugene City Council “David Jennings, a longterm MORTAL ENEMY of ARCHIE WEINSTEIN and his rip-off development interests, provided us much-needed information from his 1974 ANTI-WEINSTEIN files.” LEWIS WARD CITIZENS COOPERATING TO RECALL WEINSTEIN Paid: David Jennings for City Councilor, Kent Anderson, Treasurer. 744 W. Park, Eugene, OR 97401.
