GP cuts 30 jobs in Oregon Coast range town
Saturday, October 4, 2008 11:21 PM PDT
PHILOMATH (AP) — Georgia-Pacific has cut 30 jobs at its two lumber mills in Philomath, another in a string of small cuts in Oregon’s once-mighty timber industry that has been hit hard recently by the housing slowdown.
In Philomath, about 75 people remain on the job at the sawmill and the planer mill, which have cut from two shifts to one. The mills turn out dimensional lumber of Douglas fir and hemlock.
City Manager Randy Kugler says the loss of 30 jobs will have an impact, but a downturn in the timber industry is not so dramatic as it might have been a decade ago or more.
He says several hundred wood products jobs are gone, and the local economy has diversified from the days when the timber industry was the dominant employer.
Wood products manufacturing statewide has fallen significantly over the past two years as the real estate boom tapered off.
According to the most recent statistics from the Oregon Employment Department, the industry employed 27,600 workers in Oregon as of August, down 2,400 jobs from the previous year and down 5,500 jobs from August 2006. Other recent timber products cuts:
— Columbia Forest Products in Klamath Falls said it would lay off more than 60 workers. Employment at the hardwood plywood plant ranges between 300 and 500.
— International Paper said about 40 workers will lose jobs when the company shuts down a containerboard production line at its Albany mill. Production is to be down for at least three months. The company says it hopes to restart the production line in early 2009. The plant employs about 240 workers making corrugated cardboard boxes and grocery bags.
— Boise Cascade has made cutbacks at La Grande, Island City and Elgin.
