There will be a “temporary curtailment” at Millar Western Quesnel River Pulp, which will see around 90 workers laid off.
Millar Western says the curtailment will start at the end of the day shift on May 16, until July 2.
The company says the curtailment, or layoff of employees, comes from market demand and issues, as well as the pressure from U.S tariffs, as well as other foreign ones.
“We’ve got a two–fold problem, we had a weakened market to start with for an extended period of time, with lower demand,” Brian McConkey, Vice–President of Human Resources and Corporate Affairs at Millar Western, says.
“Then the new tariffs from China have only worsened our overall demand.”
McConkey adds that it is not just Quesnel’s pulp mill going into curtailment; the Slave Lake Pulp and Whitecourt Pulp mills in Alberta will also experience temporary curtailment during the same period of time.
An estimated over 200 workers between the three pulp mills will laid off temporarily.
Skeletal crews of salary workers and managers will still be working through the first couple of weeks.
“We’ll need to continue to ship and sell our product, and pay our people. So wherever there is meaningful work, we’ll keep people working.”
McConkey says employees who are being laid off through the six weeks will be able to use their vacation entitlement to offset their pay. The company’s health care and welfare benefits plans will still be accessible for employees to use as well.
As to whether this specific instance is a one-off, McConkey says ” the economic conditions on a global scale are too hard to predict right now.” He adds Millar Western’s focus is to be back up with normal operations, with all employees, by July 2.
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