More than half the workers at the Smurfit-Stone Container plant here will lose their jobs when the company eliminates its corrugated cardboard line later this month.
An estimated 50-60 employees will be out of work, said Rick Arends, business agent for United Steel Workers Local 264, which represents the Roseville workers. That will leave only 30-40 workers to run the remaining cardboard box operations, he said.
Smurfit-Stone is consolidating local corrugated production in Minneapolis. The plant in Northeast Minneapolis is expected to add a third shift and 5-10 jobs to its current production crew of 90, said Rich Felch, president of Steel Workers Local 1259 in Minneapolis.
Some Roseville workers may be able to transfer to Minneapolis, but that still must be negotiated, Arends said. Effects bargaining began Nov. 29 to discuss issues such as plant seniority, company seniority for workers who transfer, and retraining through the state's Dislocated Workers program for workers who lose their jobs, he said.
Other workers may be able to catch on with area paper companies that are hiring, Arends said, including Weyerhaeuser, International Paper, Green Bay Packaging, and Hood Packaging.
"They're all looking for people, but Smurfit-Stone doesn't want to lose them early," Arends said.
Smurfit-Stone's local restructuring is part of its nationwide consolidation of corrugated production, in which it shuts down 20 percent of its lines in the next three years. Though the decision is mostly internal, Arends said, times are tough in the entire packaging industry. "The demand is not there like it used to be."
He attributes some of that to increased imports, which reduce the need for boxes manufactured domestically.
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org
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More than half the workers at the Smurfit-Stone Container plant here will lose their jobs when the company eliminates its corrugated cardboard line later this month.
An estimated 50-60 employees will be out of work, said Rick Arends, business agent for United Steel Workers Local 264, which represents the Roseville workers. That will leave only 30-40 workers to run the remaining cardboard box operations, he said.
Smurfit-Stone is consolidating local corrugated production in Minneapolis. The plant in Northeast Minneapolis is expected to add a third shift and 5-10 jobs to its current production crew of 90, said Rich Felch, president of Steel Workers Local 1259 in Minneapolis.
Some Roseville workers may be able to transfer to Minneapolis, but that still must be negotiated, Arends said. Effects bargaining began Nov. 29 to discuss issues such as plant seniority, company seniority for workers who transfer, and retraining through the state’s Dislocated Workers program for workers who lose their jobs, he said.
Other workers may be able to catch on with area paper companies that are hiring, Arends said, including Weyerhaeuser, International Paper, Green Bay Packaging, and Hood Packaging.
“They’re all looking for people, but Smurfit-Stone doesn’t want to lose them early,” Arends said.
Smurfit-Stone’s local restructuring is part of its nationwide consolidation of corrugated production, in which it shuts down 20 percent of its lines in the next three years. Though the decision is mostly internal, Arends said, times are tough in the entire packaging industry. “The demand is not there like it used to be.”
He attributes some of that to increased imports, which reduce the need for boxes manufactured domestically.
Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@stpaulunions.org