Operations News

Employees at the Longview paper mill NORPAC narrowly voted against unionizing last month in the staff's first effort to organize.

Norwegian pulp-and-paper company Norske Skog ASA said that its Bruck paper mill in Austria will gradually resume production Monday, March 21, following its March 9 decision to introduce temporary downtime as unprecedented energy prices made operations unsustainable.

Union workers took to the streets last month in demonstrations, to fight for a new contract.

This was the mill's second blaze in as many months, although it was not as severe as the Jan. 22 fire that wrought $500,000 in damage, according to the East Jefferson Fire Rescue report.

Conciliator Leo Suomaa has submitted a proposal for a settlement in the collective labour agreement negotiations between UPM Pulp and the Paperworkers' Union. The conciliator has asked the parties to state their position on the proposal by 14 April 2022 at 10:00 EET.

Close to 200 Unifor delegates kicked off bargaining preparations for the pattern agreement in the pulp and paper industry in Eastern Canada by selecting Resolute Forestry Products as the target company. Members at the Pulp and Paper Wage Policy Conference, held in Montreal on March 23 and 24, 2022, worked together to build a list of demands and choose the target employer.

Ontario's Labour Ministry confirmed the incident and is now investigating.

Workers at Cascades Containerboard Packing in the city have overwhelmingly ratified a collective bargaining agreement which will remain in place until the end of the year.

Firefighters were called to Dunn Paper in the town of Gouverneur shortly after 11 p.m. Sunday, March 6.

Metsä Fibre, part of Metsä Group, starts negotiations on its plans to discontinue the lumber production in Kyrö, Finland in the summer of 2022. The production stop will affect all the sawmill's 73 employees.

The operations of Metsä Group's only production unit in Russia, the Svir sawmill, have been suspended.

Syktyvkar is currently operating, but the mill is starting to see a number of operational constraints, including in the importing of process chemicals, spare parts and other critical supplies. While difficult to assess the ramifications in what remains a fast-moving situation, this may significantly impact the operation of the mill.

Neenah, Inc. announced that Larry Brownlee, Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer (CAO), has communicated his plans to retire in August. To ensure a smooth transition, Mr. Brownlee will remain with Neenah through the August 12 retirement date.

Neenah announced the restart of its Brownville, New York manufacturing facility.

Due to unaffordability of operations in the current energy environment, temporary downtime has been initiated at the Bruck paper mill in Austria. The new boiler scheduled for start-up in April is expected to contribute to alleviate the situation by reducing the mill's gas consumption and improve its energy supply. The boiler project and the packaging conversion project at the Bruck mill continue as planned.

Stora Enso announced that they will stop all production and sales in Russia until further notice due to the ongoing invasion in Ukraine.

The Svetogorsk mill, located at the border with Finland, employs approximately 1,700 people and produces uncoated freesheet, coated paperboard and pulp. The mill relies on raw materials and other critical supplies and services imported from Europe.

Sylvamo is beginning an orderly suspension of operations in Russia. The suspension will focus on employee and contractor safety and environmental stewardship. It will be conducted in a manner to allow a resumption of full operations in an environment consistent with the company's values.

UPM will cease its deliveries to Russia for the time being. UPM businesses will keep the Russian customers and suppliers informed of the situation.

Having paused reopening efforts last fall in part because of concerns about street crime in Seattle's downtown core, Weyerhaeuser will be returning to its Pioneer Square headquarters in April.

Canfor Corporation has announced the permanent reduction of 150 million board feet of production capacity at its Plateau Sawmill to resize the facility and align it with the available, sustainable timber supply in the region following the devastating impacts of the Mountain Pine Beetle infestation and other constraints on the timber harvesting land base.

No injuries were reported in the fire.

Mondi has temporarily shut its industrial bags plant that employs about 100 people in Lviv in the west of Ukraine due to Russia's invasion of the country, according to a spokesperson.

The County of Grande Prairie Regional Fire Service was on the scene at the Weyerhaeuser sawmill after a structure fire at the facility at approximately 6 a.m. Monday, Feb. 21.

Fire crews responded to a machinery fire inside the Dunn Paper mill in Port Huron Thursday afternoon, Feb. 17.