LINCOLN, Maine — State labor officials will meet Wednesday with 22 Lincoln Paper and Tissue LLC workers whose indefinite layoff from the mill was announced last week, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The 22 workers are not required to attend the meeting, which is set for 10 a.m. at the Masonic building that also houses the town office, said Laura Rabinowitz, spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Labor.
Maine Department of Labor Rapid Response team members got word Aug. 31 of the pending layoffs, which they said would occur in conjunction with the indefinite shutdown of the mill’s No. 6 tissue-making machine, which is one of three tissue makers at the mill.
Mill co-owner Keith Van Scotter could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.
Lincoln Paper and Tissue produces an estimated 200 tons of tissue per day with its three machines. It advertises itself as the largest producer of deep-dyed tissue in the United States. Its tissue products are used by many of the nation’s party goods producers, airlines and food service companies to create napkins, towels, table covers and other specialty products.
It also manufactures specialty tissue stock for health care products such as medical draping, disposable gowns and beauticians neck strips, and for industrial applications including electrical tissue, according to its website, lpt.com.
The response team will assist employees with retraining, job hunting, unemployment compensation and health care coverage, Rabinowitz said.
The last reported layoffs at the mill came about a month after a smelt water explosion in a chemical recovery boiler in November 2013. The destruction of the boiler forced the layoff ultimately of about 185 millworkers, ended paper production at the facility and forced the mill to buy pulp from off-site sources. The loss of a major customer also influenced the decision, officials said.
About 15 of the original layoffs forced by the explosion were hired back, state officials estimated.
The mill sometimes halts production for maintenance and backlog management. A 10-day shutdown occurred in September 2014 with management having “sent people home,” Van Scotter said at the time.
More recently, Lincoln Paper finished nearly $10 million in internal improvements with the startup of a new $6 million turbine and condenser system in February.