Union says N.B. mill closure is bad Christmas gift

The union that represents the 535 laid-off employees at the UPM-Kymmene Group paper mill in Miramichi, N.B., says it is upset with the company's timing.

The company announced Monday that it is permanently shutting down the mill, ending any hope people in that community were holding that the mill would re-open.

About 535 people were laid off in August, when the mill shut down on what was billed as a temporary closure. At the time, the closure of the groundwood and paper operations was supposed to be for a year.

But the company announced on Monday the closure is permanent.

Chris Allison, president of Local 689 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, says UPM has a funny way of showing gratitude to workers who gave everything they had to make Miramichi profitable.

"for a company to do this one week before Christmas, it shows very little class, no class whatsoever," Allison said Monday.

The fate of many paper-making operations across the globe in recent years foreshadowed the closure of the Miramichi mill, the president of the UPM's magazine division, Jyrki Ovaska, said Monday.

"Sadly, closures of paper machines and sawmills have become almost a weekly occurrence and New Brunswick has experienced this first-hand," he said.

Ovaska expressed gratitude to the 535 laid-off mill workers. He said they did all that could possibly be done to save the mill, even if it was in vain.

"There have been very short periods of time only, some months, when we have made positive operating profit on that mill, and several times when we have made very deep losses," Ovaska said.

During the temporary shut down in the fall, Ovaska said the company investigated several ways to make the Miramichi operation viable. In the end, he said, the current business environment left the company no other options.

High dollar means low profits

In a media release Monday, the company's head office in Helsinki, Finland, said the high Canadian dollar has made the export of Miramichi's paper products to the United States unprofitable.

According to the release, theincreasing cost of raw materials and the overcapacity of magazine paper were also considered in the decision.

Miramichi has two paper machines that produced 450,000 tonnes of lightweight coated paper annually.

The mill was Miramichi's largest employer andhas beena fixture in the community for50 years.

In New Brunswick, UPM also operatessawmills in Blackville and Bathurst and manages woodlands under Crown forest licences.

The company said the future of those operations is also under consideration.

The Blackville sawmill has 66 employeesand iscurrently in atemporary shutdown. The Bathurst sawmill is running one shift and employs 93 people. There are another 61 in woodlands management.

Sawmills and paper mills have been closing throughout the province over recent months, providing a devastating blow to New Brunswick's largest industry.

The company says it will begin dismantling the Miramichi operations in the new year.