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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 2020)
PAGE 2 | November 20, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Jill Lukens Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $15 a year for union members, $23 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of $11.52 a year per person are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 New Temporary Hours: Mon-Sat 12-6 pm PLEASE SHOW OUR ADVERTISERS YOU APPRECIATE THEIR SUPPORT FOR THIS LABOR MOVEMENT NEWSPAPER! Corporate vandalism The Newberg mill used to be where Oregon sent its recycled paper. Now it’s being scrapped. By Don McIntosh Newberg’s recycled paper mill—where workers had produced lumber, newsprint and containerboard since the 1880s, is being taken apart. Atlanta-based paper giant Westrock ac- quired the mill in 2015 when it bought SP Fiber. Westrock said it would make improve- ments in the mill, but instead closed it almost immediately, terminating 200 workers, most of them members of Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW). On Sept. 17, 2020, Westrock sold the 200-acre mill site lock, stock and barrel to St. Louis-based Commercial Development Company Inc. CDC is now liquidating assets at the site in stages. You’ve already missed the chance to bid on a 70-foot-long truck scale, but if you’re in the market for an overhead bridge crane or jib crane, you have until Dec. 1. Before it closed, the Newberg mill was turning 330,000 tons of recycled paper a year into newsprint and light-weight container- board, which is used in making corrugated cardboard boxes. Those mill jobs paid $28 an hour plus benefits, and they’re the type of job that the Newberg area won’t likely see again, says AWPPW President Greg Pallesen. Pallesen did all he could to reopen the mill, pitching it to potential buyers, and even filing suit in 2018 to stop Westrock from acquiring After buying and closing the Newberg mill, We- strock destroyed millions of dollars of equipment, drilling holes in giant rollers used in the paper- making process. That would have resulted in a felony conviction and prison sentence if vandals or workers had done it. But the U.S. Justice De- partment dismissed a union lawsuit charging We- strock with anti-competitive practices— destroy- ing capital equipment and curtailing production to drive up prices. another competitor, Kapstone. But the suit failed, and Westrock rebuffed all offers from companies that wanted to restart the mill, and instead offered it for sale on condition that the paper-making machines be destroyed. “Two of the potential owners that I worked directly with have operations throughout the world,” Pallesen said, “and both those companies said everywhere else they operate, what Westrock did with New- berg would have been against the law.” “This is unfettered capitalism at its best: EVERYTHING MUST GO: Looking to buy a 32-ton pair of natural-gas-powered Voyager steam generators? What about a 1-Ton Coff- ing Beam Hoist? The new owner of the mothballed Newberg paper mill is selling off all but its paper equipment to make way for new riverfront development. A company that buys competitors and has no intention of restarting them. They spent over $288 million to buy that mill, a mill in Ohio, and a Georgia mill, and they closed the Ohio and Newberg mill one week to the day after they became owners.”
