Employees at the Verso Corp. paper mill in Jay are expected to find out soon whether they’ll be laid off after the company announced in August it would be laying off 300 Maine workers.
The Maine spokesman for the Memphis, Tenn.-based company told the Morning Sentinel on Tuesday that the company was nearly finished identifying who will be laid off, but he wouldn’t say when the company will notify employees.
The Maine Department of Labor and other agencies are holding worker assistance workshops Thursday and Friday, along with later this month, at the mill to provide relief for laid-off workers, the paper reported.
Verso announced in August it would permanently eliminate about 300 jobs at its Androscoggin Mill in Jay and lay off an additional 310 at another mill in Kentucky. At the time, it cited declining demand for North American coated paper and high energy and operating costs in Maine as factors that led to the company’s decision.
The Sentinel reported that the company is required to give employees 60 days’ notice before the layoffs take effect, so the earliest layoffs could happen would be in December. The employees aren’t represented by a labor union.
Verso shuttered another paper mill in Bucksport at the end of 2014.
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