Smoke Signals February 1990 Page 9
160 JOBS LOST AT
WILLAMINA MILL
WILLAMINA - Conifer Plywood Co. closed its doors
indefinetly Friday, immediately laying off approximately
160 empoyees.
The plywood manufacturer, owned by Conifer-Pacific,
will retain a small crew through Feb. 1 to help close the
' mill.
Mill manager Ivan Debban said the closing was
necessary because of damage suffered in severe wind
storms earlier this month.
However, John Turnbull, President of Conifer-Pacific,
said on Jan. 10 that the mill would reopen in early
February after repairs were made. Insurance would
cover the loss, he said.
The mill had been closed temporarily for repairs since
Jan. 7, after high winds blew down both 150-plus-foot-tall
boiler smoke-stacks, causing an estimated
$300,000.00 damage, mill owner John Hampton said.
Conifer-Pacific has leased the mill from Hampton
since November 1983.
The closure shocked Willamina city officials.
"It's going to be quite a blow economically to the town,
all right," Mayor Francis Eddy said. "Hopefully we can
get somebody back in there sometime soon."
It was unclear Friday why Conifer Pacific officials
changed their minds about repairing and reopening the
plywood plant.
Turnbull did not return five calls to Conifer Pacific's
main office in Ncwbcrg Friday.
Poor plywood market conditions may be a factor in the
decision not to immediately repair the plant, according
to plywood industry analysis.
Hal Mayhcw, a Portland financial consultant familiar
with Conifer, said the same market forces that closed
the Bohemia Plywood plant near Cottage Grove and the
Champion International plywood plant in Roseburg also
closed the Willamina plant.
A limited supply of large logs from federal lands has
forced lumber prices higher in recent months, Mayhew
said. Large logs are preferable in plywood manufactur
ing. Prices have risen from $300 per thousand board feet to
$458 per thousand board feet. The break-even point for
plywood manufacturers is not much more than $300 per
thousand board feet, he said.
"Raw materials are almost 50 percent higher than a
year ago," Mayhew said. "The way to the forest service
thing is going - they might get cut off completely.
"If you want to run a plywood mill or a lumber mill,
you almost always have to outbid the other guy. It's a
bad situation, and all a mill can do is shut down."
Mayhew predicted that more plywood mills would
close in the months to come.
Volatility in the plywood and timber industry is not
new, he said.
"It's been around for years," he said. "But the players
change."
Hampton, the chief executive officer of Hampton
Affiliates of Portland, said he did not know what he
would do with the plant.
He said his corporate engineer and insurance agent are
inspecting damages and that he might decide the mill's
fate in a few weeks.
Hampton Affiliates will not take over the operation of
the plant, which it purchased from Champion Interna
tional in 1983 and later remodeled.
Hampton Affiliates, which currently has nearly 500
employees, would be at a disadvantage in bidding for
lumber from federal lands if it took over the plant's
operation and had to grow to more than 500 employees,
he said.
The federal government each year sets aside a percent
age of the timber harvest solely for companies with
fewer than 500 employees to bid on.
"It would be a disadvantage for us to be big," Hampton
said.
The alternatives are to sell, lease or liquidate the
Conifer plant, Hampton said.
Hampton said he will keep the community in mind
when deciding the mill's fate.
Mayhew said he expected Conifer Pacific to continue
operating its Triangle Veneer plywood mill in Eugene,
Elma Plywood mill near Olympia, Wash., and a distribu
tion center in Clackamas.
Courtesy of the Statesman Journal
Mark Grosser got the job of repairing the Depot roof.
"MILL WORKERS START
JOB SCRAMBLE"
WILLAMINA The closing of the Conifer Flywood Co.
came as a shock to many of its employees who learned
of the news Friday.' , ,
'No way was anybody expecting this," Terry Smith, a
glue shop worker from Monmouth, said. "If it hadn't
been for the stacks falling, we wouldn't have shut down."
i. Smith, who supports his wife and family on his $2,500
monthly salary, said he would need to find another job .
quiuviyv ,'','",,'
,This is the third time this has happened to me that
I've been shut down,1?, he said. "I was working at Camp a
Adair when Georgia Pacific dosed it, and then for Boise
Cascade. Same thing. This tells me something.' It tells
me I'm In the wrong profession." f ' y
I Most of the workers made $6 to $7 dollars an hour,
according to Ken Stencrson, a glue shop worker from ; ;
Salem. 7 7 ' ' , ' ,
f About a third of the approximately 160 employees live
in Willamina,mill worker Frank Peterson said. "More
live in Sheridan, McMinnville, Salem, Tillamook." On
Friday, mill employees were given severance pay and ;
letters explaining the closure and telling them where to
apply for other jobs. ' ' '" , , ' , ,
- Standing outside the mill with their final paychecks in ;
their hands, workers joked about kissing the foreman ; ;
good-bye, but an undercurrent of worry ran through ; , ;
their talk. ' , , , , ,
"I'll try the other mills first," Stencrson said, "but if ,
there's no mill jobs, I'll do a career change and go back
to contracting." 7 y ' '
t Others said they wished they had another profession :
already learned. '','' ' ,'''' o
Willamina worker Jim Hampton's wife, Sherry, said
both she and her husband would be out Monday looking
for work.
"
Courtesy of the Statesman Journal
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This downed tree blocked Ford Road and fell across these powerlines leaving them exposed.