News

Atlas mill (Coeur d’Alene, ID) workers qualify for worker retraining

A little good news arrived Tuesday for the employees of Stimson Lumber’s Atlas mill who will lose their jobs when the plant closes at the end of the year.

The U.S. Department of Labor approved an application by Stimson to certify those workers as eligible for Worker Adjustment Assistance, which will allow retraining and extended unemployment benefits to allow the employees time to find jobs in other fields.

"That was good to see," said a spokesman for Stimson and Marshall Chesrown, who had earlier agreed to purchase the Atlas mill along Seltice Way and the DeArmond Stud Mill adjacent to North Idaho College for riverfront development and to build a replacement mill at Hauser.

"Those discussions are in hiatus until the site is ready to sell," the spokesman said.

In mid-October, Stimson announced plans to close the Atlas Mill at the end of the year, with the loss of about 120 jobs. About a year earlier, Stimson had laid off the night shift at the plant because of diminishing sales.

The Department of Labor surveyed Stimson’s customers, and found that purchases from abroad had been increasing, and that, combined with the fact that a "significant number of workers at the firm are age 50 or over and possess skills that are not easily transferable," and that "competitive conditions within the industry are adverse," qualified the employees for Alternative Trade Adjustment Assistance and Worker Adjustment Assistance.

By RICK THOMAS
Staff writer

Full Story: http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2005/11/30/business/bus01.txt

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.