BUCKSPORT, Maine — As a show of gratitude to workers who have helped sustain the town’s largest employer and taxpayer, local town officials and residents have scheduled a rally outside the Verso Paper mill’s main gate for 3 p.m. today.
The final shift at the mill, which Verso plans to sell to AIM Development, is expected to end at that time. Verso announced Oct. 1 that it planned to shut down the mill and then early this month reached an agreement to sell the mill to the scrap metal firm for approximately $60 million.
“At 3 p.m. as the workers exit the mill via the Main Gate located on the River Road across from Seaboard Federal Credit Union, the public is encouraged and invited to line up in that area to cheer on, congratulate and express thanks for their many years of service in the Verso Bucksport Mill,” town officials indicated in a prepared release.
The Verso mill, which specializes in making coated paper for use in magazines and catalogs, has been in operation for 84 years. It employs 570 workers, most of whom are expected to be laid off at the end of the month when Verso expects to hand the 250-acre waterfront property over to AIM, a subsidiary of Montreal-based American Iron and Metal.
The mill property includes two power generation facilities, which AIM has said will continue to operate after it takes over the facility. Between 50 to 60 people currently work in the mill’s power-generation plants, one of which burns natural gas and the other of which uses biomass fuel.
Town officials have said 24 percent of the mill’s workers live in Bucksport, which means nearly 140 local residents are losing their jobs with the mill closure. The mill has employees living in all 16 counties in Maine.
The sale from Verso to AIM is being challenged. On Monday, the International Association of Machinists union filed a lawsuit against the two companies in federal court, alleging that the sale is a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. By scrapping the mill, the union says, Verso is trying to monopolize the market for coated paper.
The union is seeking a court injunction that, among other things, would require Verso to more aggressively solicit offers from companies that would continue to operate the mill as a paper making facility. The union also accuses Verso in the complaint of trying to evade state requirements to pay severance within one pay period of employees’ final day of work. The company has said it has a contract with the unions to pay all severance within 90 days of termination.
Hearings on the union’s lawsuit have been set for U.S. District Court in Bangor. A hearing on the issue of severance pay will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Dec. 23. Another on the union’s antitrust claims has been scheduled for 10 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2015.
According to Town Manager Derik Goodine, property taxes from the mill make up about 44 percent of the town’s approximate $12 million annual budget. The valuation of the paper mill is $317 million, while the adjacent power generation plants have a separate valuation of $41 million combined, he has said.
The Bucksport mill’s origins date to 1930, when it opened as the Maine Seaboard Paper Co. and produced newsprint. Time Inc. purchased the mill in 1946 and hired the St. Regis company to operate it for them, producing the coated paper for which the Bucksport mill became known.
St. Regis purchased the mill in 1947 and over the next 3½ decades periodically expanded and improved the mill to keep up with modern technology. Champion International purchased the mill in 1984, and IP bought Champion, including its mills in Bucksport and Jay, in 2000. IP sold the Maine mills to Verso in 2006.
The mill employed approximately 1,000 people in 2000, but its workforce has since shrunk to roughly 800 employees in 2005 and then to the current total of around 570.
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