March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Georgia-Pacific reorganizing, plans to eliminate 13 jobs

BAILEYVILLE — Officials of Georgia-Pacific Corp.’s forest-resources group announced Friday that the group would reorganize Oct. 1, a move that would result in the elimination of 13 hourly positions.

The positions affected by the reorganization are in the forestry, road and maintenance operations in St. Croix, New Brunswick.

“The business strategy we are pursuing will offer greater efficiency and organizational effectiveness for all of our forest management operations,” said Rodney Fitch, group manager of the company’s Northeastern Forest Resources group. “Road and maintenance tasks in the future will be performed by independent contractors,” he said.

The St. Croix reorganization is only the latest in a series of moves undertaken to restructure G-P’s Woodland plant operation. Nearly 100 workers, including six mechanics and heavy-equipment operators in Princeton, have seen their jobs evaporate since November 1992, when 13 salaried employees were laid off.

In December, 13 light-duty workers, many with minor disabilities, also were released. That action led to Maine’s AFL-CIO filing complaints with the Maine Human Rights Commission on behalf of six of the light-duty workers.

The union charged that G-P had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by firing the partially disabled workers. Company officials responded at the time that the group had not been singled out, and maintained that the layoffs were part of the company’s restructuring plan.

In February 1993, another 46 jobs were eliminated at G-P’s pulp and paper mill, reducing the company’s work force at that plant to about 625 employees. Last November, company officials predicted that as many as 120 salaried and non-salaried employees could be out of work by the end of 1994.

The organizational changes in the forest-resources group will not affect the Woodland mill or related G-P operations. The forestry group is responsible for managing more than 836,000 acres of timberland in the region and supplying raw wood materials to the Woodland manufacturing site.


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