They pass other workers who are just arriving for their last evening shift at the mill. Most of the 133 workers who learned they would lose their jobs when the company permanently closes its plywood plant this week have already gone home. The last few will punch out for the last time Friday afternoon.
Slightly more than 100 workers remain at a site that once employed more than 1,000. They will continue making studs, which are now the Bonner mill's only product.
But some workers leaving their last shift Thursday wondered if the company was doing all it could to hang on. They questioned whether Stimson hasn't been planning a gradual exit from the beginning.
That beginning would be 1993, when Stimson bought the mills and property in Bonner from Champion International Corp. At that time, Champion's timberlands went to Plum Creek Timber Co., which inked a 10-year deal with Stimson to provide 1 billion board feet of timber.
That deal ended in 2003. In the years since, Stimson has struggled to keep its log yard full.
Soon after Stimson bought the Bonner mill, it began rolling out a new product, a patented hardwood-faced plywood called Duratemp.
According to plywood shipping supervisor Micheal Myers, the plywood plant was averaging between 6 million and 7 million square feet of Duratemp each month. Demand for Duratemp remains strong, Myers said.
“It really is a unique product,” he said.
However, the product calls for a specific kind of wood fiber that is difficult to find in western Montana, and Stimson had to ship the raw materials in from farther and farther away.
Finally, it sold the patent and rights to Duratemp to Roseburg Forest Products, which has a melamine and particleboard plant in Missoula but plans to make Duratemp at its plywood mills in Oregon.
“We think it's a good product line,” said Paul Erickson, Roseburg's plywood sales manager. “It's got a good name in the marketplace and we think it's going to fit with the other products we produce.”
One of Roseburg's goals, he explained, is to expand its customer base and market share by introducing new products.
“With our mix of products, we don't get hit quite as hard with the ups and downs that some of our competitors do.” Erickson said. “Right now, the plywood market is very strong for us.”
Roy Hartse, who lost his job at the Bonner mill this week, wishes Stimson would adopt a similar approach.
“It's not a very good deal, the way it's happening,” said Hartse, who has worked at the mill for more than 20 years. “Times are tough in the building industry, I know, but we were told the plywood mill was making a monthly profit, that we were doing a good job. We were told we were one of the few mills making a profit. Then the president (Stimson CEO Andrew Miller) comes out and says ‘Oh, we're shutting down.' ”
The Duratemp deal, Hartse said, has left some Stimson workers feeling sold out.
“I'm not bitter or anything at the company,” he added. “The managers, they always treated everybody fairly. It's just that, this way is not a very nice way to leave, in my opinion.”
Stimson is doing its best to compete in a rapidly changing industry - including investing in its Bonner facilities, said plant manager Nick Osman. The equipment inside the plywood plant will be liquidated to Mill Machinery LLC, and some of the remaining machinery will be repaired and upgraded. The company is rebuilding a lot of equipment and actively pushing the plant to higher levels of productivity, he said.
“The mill has made a lot of progress,” he said.
Osman came to Bonner in September 2005, but has worked in the lumber industry since 1979. His time at Stimson so far, he said, has been a great experience. Nearly all the employees at Bonner, he said, have impeccable work histories and high levels of expertise.
It's hard to let any of them go, he said. Every chance he gets, he makes sure to thank them for all their hard work.
Stimson said thank you in its own way this week, with a company-wide barbecue steak meal.
It also negotiated a severance package for qualified workers with Local 3038 of the Lumber Production and Industrial Workers Union, said Mike Woodworth, a millwright and business manager for the union.
“It's something,” he said. “In essence, they will receive severance pay of 40 hours of pay for every two years of service, rounded (up) to the nearest quarter.”
That means a worker who had been with Stimson for 14 years would receive seven weeks' pay. On top of that, vacation pay is available for workers who logged more than 600 hours of vacation time. For most, Woodworth said, that's an additional four weeks' pay.
The severance package also includes one year of extended benefits, he added.
Most of the workers he's talked to haven't decided what they're going to do yet. The oldest ones are crunching numbers, trying to decide if they can retire early. Others are thinking about taking jobs that, for the most part, offer lower pay and fewer benefits.
A majority appear to be considering retraining for some other line of work, with health care proving especially popular.
Still, Woodworth said, the idea of starting a new career so late in life is daunting to many.
“I've got many workers that are in that over-50 age group,” he said. “They're saying, ‘Hey, I'm 58, I'm 59, What am I going to do? Who's going to hire me?' ”
Roy Hartse, 47, hasn't decided what his next move will be. He wouldn't mind accepting a position that started with low pay, he said, but he wants whatever job he takes to have “potential.”
“Our income is going to be reduced, so I've got to do something,” Hartse said. “I'd like to find another job, but I don't know. If I can't find anything decent, I'll probably take up the school option.”
He considers himself fortunate, he said. A lot of the people he works with are at least 10 years older.
“They're not going to have a chance to really get going in another career,” he said. “It doesn't seem very fair.”
A handful of longtime workers gathered at a shaded picnic table just outside the building after their shift ended Thursday, counting down the final minutes of their employment at Stimson.
Tom Hatch worked at the mill for 25 years. Steve DeMers, for 31. Roy Newell put in nearly 39 years at Bonner.
“When I started out here, this plywood plant wasn't even thought up,” Newell said, smiling.
Together they have weathered temporary shutdowns and massive layoffs, new technology and new company ownership. They watched their children grow up together.
“It's kind of like a family,” DeMers says.
Now, their former co-workers will scatter to other jobs. Some will stay in the area, but many will leave Bonner for good.
It will be hard to see them go, DeMers said, but it helps to remember that many of them will seize the opportunity to make a positive change. A year from now, he predicted, everyone would find themselves in a better place.
“We just wish,” he said, “this would have lasted 10 more years.”
Reporter Tyler Christensen can be reached at 523-5215 or at tyler.christensen@missoulian.com
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