Timber firm cuts 145 jobs

The Daily Inter Lake

Plum Creek Timber Co. announced plans Thursday to reduce production yet again, costing 145 more workers their jobs at four sawmills and the medium density fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls.

Another 221 workers at the Evergreen and Columbia Falls sawmills temporarily are out of jobs until March.

The Ksanka mill at Fortine will close permanently in March, a move that will mean a loss of jobs for 74 employees, according to a company press release.

Plum Creek is the second-largest private employer in the Flathead Valley.

The company also will temporarily curtail operations at the Evergreen sawmill for the rest of January,

February and potentially March, putting 88 people out of work.

Both Ksanka and Evergreen mills produce stud grade lumber for home construction. When lumber markets improve, Plum Creek officials said the Evergreen sawmill will have the capacity to absorb some of the volume previously produced at Ksanka.

Plum Creek's two pine board sawmills, in Pablo and Columbia Falls, also will see cuts.

The Pablo sawmill will reduce its operating level from the current 1.5 shifts to one shift, putting 36 employees out of work effective immediately.

The pine board sawmill at Columbia Falls will temporarily curtail production for the rest of January, February and possibly into March, putting 133 people out of work. The pine board sawmill products are used primarily in home repair and remodeling.

At the Columbia Falls medium density fiberboard plant, each of the two production lines will scale down to two shifts beginning on Jan. 19. That will cut the MDF work force by 35 people.

The job losses were attributed to unprecedented housing sector troubles and a continuing drop in demand for wood products.

"The forest products industry in general and the lumber business in particular have been severely impacted by the battered housing market," said Rick Holley, Plum Creek president and chief executive officer.

"The closure of the Ksanka stud mill and reductions in production levels at our other facilities are painful steps to take due to the job losses and impacts to a number of our valued employees. Unfortunately, these steps are necessary to match supply with the eroding demand for our wood products."

Thursday's announcement comes on the heels of a series of layoffs at Plum Creek's Montana facilities in 2008.

On Sept. 11, the MDF plant laid off about 35 workers and reduced its four rotating shifts to three.

The finger-joint stud remanufacturing plant was closed in Evergreen, and 24 workers went home without jobs on Sept. 30.

Then on Nov. 21 the company laid off 68 workers from its Evergreen and Columbia Falls plywood plants and scaled back the Evergreen plant to two rotating shifts.

Remaining workers at all plants were furloughed for two weeks in December.

Plum Creek said it will provide severance pay to the affected employees at the Ksanka, Pablo and MDF facilities. In compliance with federal law, the Ksanka mill employees were provided with a 60-day advance notice of the mill closing.

The announcement came on the same day that Semitool Inc. began laying off 200 people from its plants in Kalispell and Libby.