Boise Cascade announced through a Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification that the company plans to lay off employees at the plywood mill in Elgin starting in February. The details and scope of the layoffs remain unknown.
Boise Cascade announced through a Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification that the company in February plans to lay off employees at the plywood mill in Elgin, shown here in 2020. Affected workers were notified Dec. 14.
Boise Cascade announced through a Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification that the company plans to lay off employees at the plywood mill in Elgin starting in February. The details and scope of the layoffs remain unknown.
Dick Mason/EO Media Group File
Boise Cascade announced through a Work Adjustment and Retraining Notification that the company in February plans to lay off employees at the plywood mill in Elgin, shown here in 2020. Affected workers were notified Dec. 14.
ELGIN — Boise Cascade announced it is planning to lay off employees at the Elgin Plywood mill by mid-February.
The company publicly disclosed the layoffs through a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, on Dec. 27 has not released any additional information. A letter was sent to Elgin Mayor Risa Hallgarth and to the state’s dislocated worker unit earlier in December.
“I’m really sad that they are having to do layoffs,” Hallgarth said.
Companies with 100 or more employees are required by law to notify affected workers 60 days before any closures or layoffs. The Elgin Plywood layoff is classified as large, which means it affects 10 or more employees, according to the Oregon Dislocated Worker Rapid Response Activity Track System.
The details and scope of the layoffs remain unknown. Communications Director Lisa Tschampl said Boise Cascade had no comment at this time.
Elgin City Administrator Brock Eckstein said the layoffs seem to happen every few years. About 21% of Elgin residents are employed at the plywood mill, he said, so any layoffs will have a big financial impact on the town.
“The whole city of Elgin feels it,” he said.
The plywood facility, which opened in 1964, employs around 230 workers.
The last time Boise Cascade announced the possibility of layoffs at the Elgin plant was in 2020, when the company disclosed that it might need to reduce employee hours or even temporarily close the facility due to a permitting dispute with the state Department of Environmental Quality over wastewater.
The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in August 2021, according to DEQ representative Laura Gleim.
Employees affected by the upcoming layoffs were notified by Dec. 14. All affected employees are members of Local 2780 Carpenters Industrial Council. Union representatives were also notified.
Layoffs are expected to begin on Feb. 19 or within 14 days of that date.
“Employment is likely to end at the end of the employee’s last shift prior to Feb. 19, 2023, but it may occur sooner or later depending upon the business need to maintain workers as the full impact of the business downturn becomes known,” the notice read.
Nick Smith, public affairs director at the American Forest Resource Council, said it is common to see plywood business slow down during the winter.
“Plywood markets are down right now, which is not unusual given that markets are cyclical and winter is usually a down time for construction. Certainly there are other pressures that are weighing, probably like fiber supply, rising interest rates, things like increasing costs for transportation,” he said.
According to the notice, Boise Cascade does not believe the planned layoffs will reach the threshold that would trigger the WARN requirements but decided to provide the notice nonetheless.
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