Corner Brook mill plans downtime, affecting 530 jobs
Last Updated: Friday, September 25, 2009 | 2:39 PM NT
CBC News
More than 500 workers will be affected when the newsprint mill in Corner Brook, N.L., shuts down for two weeks in October.
Kruger Inc. announced the downtime Friday, telling workers that production would come to a halt Oct. 12 because of unfavourable market conditions.
The Montreal-based company blamed the high Canadian dollar and low newsprint prices.
A total of 380 mill employees and 150 forestry workers will be temporarily out of work because of the shutdown.
Jean Majeau, Kruger's senior vice-president of corporate affairs and communications, told CBC News that the shutdown shouldn't extend beyond the two weeks.
"We never know," he said. "The market conditions might deteriorate even worse than it is right now, but at this point of time, we think that's going to be it, that we should be able to resume our operations Oct. 26th."
About 70 workers will be kept on to do maintenance and to keep machines operational.
In June, the company shut down the No. 4 machine at the pulp and paper mill indefinitely, leading to the loss of 130 jobs: 70 at the mill itself and 60 in forest operations.
Kruger mills in Quebec are also experiencing production downtime because of problems in the marketplace.
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