05/10/2006

More help is on the way

by sheri mcwhirter

sherimcwhirter@hotmail.com

GAYLORD — Former Georgia-Pacific employees will receive additional state and federal assistance this week after an investigation showed how foreign products were directly responsible for their lost jobs.

The U.S. Department of Labor certified the workers for assistance under the Trade Act of 1974 and backdated the package for 10 employees laid-off in the year prior to the plant's March closure.

The particle board factory in Otsego County's Bagley Township was permanently and unexpectedly closed, leaving 210 employees without jobs. Company officials said it was because of high energy costs and a market saturated by imported products.

State and federal investigators agreed.

Elliott S. Kushner was the federal investigator on the case and reported steady declines in production and employment in the months leading up to the factory closure. He also surveyed Georgia-Pacific's major customers and discovered they weren't buying from the Gaylord operation because they instead chose international markets.

Kushner concluded that imported products "contributed importantly" to layoffs, sales declines and eventual factory shutdown. That qualifies the 220 affected workers for financial help beyond normal state unemployment benefits.

Tamara Ward, area manager for Michigan Works, said extra training dollars, job search assistance, relocation allowances, health coverage tax credits and additional unemployment benefits will be available to laid-off workers.

The process involves a lot of paperwork and a day-long orientation meeting, Ward said.

Former Georgia-Pacific employees interested in applying for the new round of state and federal benefits will attend a closed meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Eagles Club on Wisconsin Avenue in Gaylord. Ward said workers will begin to fill out documents that afternoon, until at least 4 p.m.

Local officials estimate the plant closure cost the region $12 million in annual payroll — about $8 million of that in Otsego County. The plant represented about 13 percent of the county's total manufacturing payroll.