Berlin and Gorham paper workers are back on the job, at last.

BERLIN, N.H. (AP) – Bruce Bunnell is glad to have his job back at Berlin-Gorham Papers after being unemployed for more than a year, but he’s wondering how long it will last.

“Since I’ve been in the mill, this is our fourth company that we’ve been through. Pulp and Paper sounded pretty good too when they first bought us,” Bunnell, 42, said of a former employer. “But I think this one’s for real. Am I skeptical? Yeah, (but) it’s still early in the game.”

The pulp mill in Berlin and the paper mill across the town line in Gorham shut down in the summer of 2001, leaving about 850 people out of work. The latest owner, American Tissue, Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2001 amid charges of fraud.

The century-old mills have traded hands four times since the 1960s. It’s a reflection of the changing times in America’s paper industry, which has lost business to overseas competitors offering cheap labor and fewer environmental restrictions, said Barry Polsky, spokesman for the American Forest and Paper Association.

‘A lot of layoffs’

“There’s still a market for a variety of paper but a reduction of capacity to produce that paper,” Polsky said. “There’s been a lot of layoffs.”

Polsky said 19,000 jobs were lost at 60 pulp and paper mills nationwide from January 2001 to August 2002.

This trend has meant fewer jobs and shorter contracts in Berlin-Gorham over the past few years and its first closure in history.

Fraser Papers Inc. bought the bankrupt mills in the spring of 2002. By mid-May of this year they had reactivated all five paper machines and the pulp mill.

Fraser was able to rehire most of the workers. About 100 are still unemployed or at other jobs, a spokesman for a worker’s assistance program said.

Fraser, part of Toronto-based forest products company Nexfor, Inc., says it plans to stay. Human Resources manager Greg Cyr said not only is Fraser in it for the long haul, but they will sink or swim with their employees.

“Workers need to be involved at all levels,” Cyr said. “It’s either we have a problem – meaning all of us in this organization – or we have a benefit.”

Cyr said Fraser is moving out of its startup phase to being fully operational. He said although there are still some misplaced workers, the company honored its obligations.

“The commitment that we had made was to bring back all of the misplaced employees as long as the jobs were still there,” Cyr said.

Eddie Deblois, president of the mill workers union, Pace Local 75, said restarting the mill with a new owner was a difficult task.

“I guess it’s gone as well as we can expect,” Deblois said. “It hasn’t been exactly easy. We have people who are still out of work and want to come in … but today we’re much better off than we were a year ago.”

Deblois said some concessions had to be made to get the contract signed. But he noted that the majority of union members approved a six-year contract with Fraser.

“Yeah, there were some concessions made,” Deblois said. “But it was a fair contract considering we were bankrupt and they were buying us.”

One concession was that rehires were not based on seniority, but on qualifications, Deblois said.

Bunnell said some jobs were lost to contractors. “That was part of the startup we had to swallow … but it’s beyond our control and we deal with it,” he said.

Steve Gauthier said the company is strict, but this has created a work environment of accountability. He said his supervisor is constantly monitoring their work, something that never happened before.

“If you lose a roll of paper he wants to know why,” Gauthier said. “These guys are serious about getting good product.”

The biggest concern for some is that Fraser will leave if it doesn’t make enough profit. Edgar Thibodeau, on the maintenance crew at the pulp mill, said he thinks the company is making a good effort.

“I was a little leery at first,” said Thibodeau, 49. “But they seem to be going in the right direction.”

Richard Chapel, director of corporate communications for Fraser, said the company is committed to staying. He said one of the keys to Fraser’s success, and partly why they purchased the mills, is because the company can make its own pulp.

“When you control the supply of the most important raw material, you have great control over the quality,” Chapel said. “It also gives you some control over cost … Sometimes it will be a financial disadvantage to be running our own pulp – but at other times it’s a significant financial advantage because pulp costs more to buy.”

Cyr said another key is cornering a specialty market. He said the company focuses on specialized, higher-market grades of paper.

“The existence of the wood basket hardwood makes a pulp that is different in its characteristics and unique to this area,” Cyr said.

Both workers and town officials agree the closure was a wake-up call to many who saw the mill as a constant in Berlin, a city of 11,000 people. Some, like Mayor Bob Danderson, think the region can diversify.

“We cannot totally rely on the paper industry and are trying to expand in other areas,” he said.

He said they are looking at everything from retail manufacturing to tourism.

Steve Griffin, who is chairman of the Androscoggin Valley Economic Recovery Co., said his group has started to look further afield for opportunity in the North Country.

“The only way we can build our economy is to build our community,” Griffin said. “We need to fix holes to attract new industry into the area.”

Griffin said the group has an economic development task force and a committee to bring business recruiters to the area.

Dave Thurlow, executive director of the Northern Forest Heritage Park, which runs a replica of a logging camp and promotes the history of the Great North Woods, says Berlin will survive, regardless of who owns its mills.

“We understand that the future of the mill is really not in the hands of local operators. It’s affected by the global market,” Thurlow said. “There’s a great sense of community pride, and we all know the value of this community and understand that we will persevere with or without the mill.”

—

On the Net:

City of Berlin: http://www.ci.berlin.nh.us/

Northern Forest Heritage Park: www.northernforestheritage.org

AP-ES-05-22-03 1806EDT