Ohio-based papermaker cuts jobs in Duluth, companywide
Thirteen employees at a West Duluth paper mill are the latest workers in Minnesota’s paper industry to lose their jobs, the News Tribune reports.
“It’s basically the result of a decline in the demand in the industry and to ensure that our business is sustainable in the long term,” Matt Christenson, communications coordinator at the Duluth mill, told the newspaper.
NewPage Corp. announced last week it was trimming 300 positions from all eight of its mills around the country, according to the Wausau Daily Herald. That's about 5 percent of the company's workforce. NewPage is also cutting $20 million in non-personnel costs.
The Business Journal notes the layoffs follow NewPage's exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December.
Meanwhile, Wausau Paper Corp. is also closing its Brainerd mill, which will leave about 130 workers without a job. Verso Paper Corp. shuttered its facility in Sartell last summer after a deadly explosion and fire on Memorial Day.
