Corner Brook mill facing job cuts, Kruger memo says

Kruger says job cuts are coming to the paper mill in Corner Brook.

CBC News has obtained an internal memo from Montreal-based newsprint producer Kruger Inc., saying it will "reduce its workforce" in the next few months.

In what may be a sign of what is to come to its western Newfoundland facility, the company says mills of comparable size are operating with 135 less employees than Corner Brook Pulp and Paper.

Kruger says the cuts are necessary in order for the mill to survive.

Kruger officials told union representatives Tuesday the company are working on a cost-cutting plan to make the Corner Brook paper mill more profitable.

The mill's owners did not announce cuts at Tuesday's meeting, but union officials said they believe they're coming.

Kruger said it will notify the unions later in the first quarter about what the company plans to do.

Earlier in the day, a senior union official said jobs will disappear at the mill.

"I don't know any of the details," Dave Coles, the national president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union, told CBC News Tuesday morning.

"I was just given a message that there would be an announcement, apparently today, affecting our membership in the mill in Corner Brook."

Meanwhile, Corner Brook Mayor Neville Greeley said he wasn't expecting layoffs at the mill on Tuesday.  

He told CBC News that newspaper reports putting 90 jobs in jeopardy are false.  

Greeley said he spoke with company brass Monday night, and was assured no cuts would be announced Tuesday.  

He said he was told union and management would meet to "discuss the situation at the mill."  

Coles said earlier Tuesday that workers at the mill are doing everything they can to make the operation efficient.

Of the three paper mills that existed in the province, Corner Brook is the only one still operating.