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Former Smurfit-Stone workers retool skills after layoffs with help from Montana’s education institutions

Bob Johnson is one of the lucky few who not only found work but found a higher-paying job when he, along with 417 other Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. employees, lost their livelihoods as the Frenchtown paper mill permanently closed in January.

Granted, it took four months for the former millwright to land the job, and it meant he had to leave behind his wife and lifelong home in Missoula. But at age 58, Johnson grabbed the chance to oversee the equipment at a radioactive waste disposal company in Washington.

"I applied for well over 100 jobs before I got this one," Johnson said during a recent phone interview. "I feel lucky to have gotten it. There’s a lot of people out of work in this country."

Finding new employment in Montana’s ever-shrinking wood products industry is a struggle, but in a down economy, finding any work at all is a challenge, particularly when you are middle-aged, said Janele Sullivan, a former Smurfit employee and union representative at the Frenchtown mill. The average age of the 400-some displaced workers is 53.

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_4dccf19c-b8a9-11df-b858-001cc4c002e0.html

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