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Hostile Takeover Ends 350 Jobs at Waycross Plywood Mill The
once-bustling plywood mill sits forlornly on several weed-grown acres
just outside Waycross, GA. A
parking lot for 350 employees sits empty. South Georgia is a center of
the forestry business, with its towering pines feeding the pulp, paper
and plywood industries of the Southeast. “There
was a time when that lot would have been full of cars, parked bumper to
bumper … and that area back yonder would have been piled sky-high with
logs waiting to be processed,” explains Yancey Durham, who spent 27
years at the facility. Durham was one of more than 200 Local W-355
members who lost their jobs when the mill closed more than a year ago. “These
were good jobs, good jobs with good benefits,” Durham said.
“There’s no more jobs like that here. It’s either work for minimum
wage, commute to Savannah or Jacksonville, or just re-locate.” Once
owned by Champion Paper Corporation, the plywood facility was gobbled up
two years ago in what Durham calls a “hostile takeover.” The
new management assured workers their jobs were secure. Shortly after the
workers ratified a new agreement with the new owners, the plant was
shutdown “temporarily.” After reassuring the workers the plant would
re-open after backed-up stocks were sold and shipped, management
announced the facility would be closed permanently on Feb.18, 2001. Thanks
to the union contract, the displaced workers received severance pay, one
week’s pay for each year of service. “But that was a mixed
blessing” in some respects, Durham said. The severance package came in
a single check, which meant a huge tax bite. Also, each week’s
severance pay meant a week’s delay in qualifying for unemployment
benefits. Durham could not receive jobless benefits for more than six
months, since he received severance pay for a 27-week period. Durham’s
story is repeated by other Local W-355 members. Carla Johnson, 34, spent
eight years at the plant, much of it as a deck operator –– hazardous
work keeping the pine logs moving smoothly to the lathe. “I
was the first woman hired to do that job,” she says proudly, “and it
took a union grievance to win it,” she adds. Johnson filled in for a
person on sick leave to earn the higher rate. When a deck job came open,
she applied but was rejected. She filed a grievance, which was resolved
at the third step and the job was hers. |
