Blue Ridge Paper plans to eliminate 100 jobs

[JPace]

Western NC has lost over 4000 jobs in a year, it
just keeps getting worse!
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http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/haywood_news/49359

Blue Ridge Paper plans to eliminate 100 jobs
By Quintin Ellison and Jon Ostendorff, Staff WritersFeb. 3, 2004 10:53 p.m.
CANTON - Blue Ridge Paper Products, one of Western North Carolina's largest employers, announced Tuesday the company would cut 100 jobs because of $30 million in net losses during the past three years.

The cuts are the first since employees banded with a New York investment group five years ago to purchase the company. The buyout was an attempt to save jobs when Champion International put the papermaking operation on the market.

Blue Ridge's decision comes after more than 1,100 people in the region learned in recent weeks they would be forced into unemployment. Three manufacturing plants - Drexel Heritage in Marion, Steelcase in Fletcher and Cooper Bussmann in Black Mountain - will all shut down within 18 months.

"If Blue Ridge was to actually ever close, it would cause a catastrophe," said the Rev. Walter Bryson of Waynesville, a 27-year employee of Blue Ridge, which makes juice cartons and envelopes.

Bryson said he was shocked by the pending layoffs and frustrated by his longtime employer's business decisions.

"We're supposed to be employee-owned, but we don't have any say in what goes on," he said.

More... http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/haywood_news/49359

[salin]

1. good thing that Decembers net job gains of ... 1,000

if distributed evenly across all fifty states would bring 20 new jobs (above creating an equal number of jobs lost - in December {forget all of those lost before and after December}) to North Carolina.

{/sarcasm}

[young_at_heart]

2. Our area is really getting hit!

Sometimes I hate to open the paper because it's like a daily thing, (jobs lost). Where are all these people going to find jobs? How will they manage?