Mill could open by Dec. 14

Idaho Forest Group will reopen Clearwater Paper's lumber mill in Lewiston as early as Dec. 14.

The company is on track to close the $30 million purchase of the sawmill on Tuesday, said Idaho Forest Group President Scott Atkison. The operations have been in wind-down mode since Oct. 26, when the deal was announced.

Idaho Forest Group will have interviewed close to 500 people by the end of the week and will continue to screen applicants for an undetermined length of time.

"We're super excited," Atkison said. "We're going to get such a great crew."

The 250 people who worked at the facility as Clearwater Paper employees are being treated like all other applicants for the 120 available positions, Atkison said.

"We're going to find the best fit," he said. "We're not giving a preference to any one thing."

The interviews are being conducted in the same room of the Red Lion Hotel in Lewiston,w where Clearwater Paper and Idaho Forest Group first informed the mill's crew of the sale.

One unknown for the new hires is if they will be represented by a union like those who worked at the mill before the sale. That question will be answered by Idaho Forest Group's Lewiston employees, said Cindy Hedge, secretary/treasurer for the Idaho AFL-CIO in Boise.

The workers could organize and vote to seek union representation in contract negotiations, Hedge said.

The National Labor Relations Act requires companies to bargain in such instances, Hedge said.

Hedge referred an inquiry about whether new Idaho Forest Group employees are being encouraged to organize to Ron Teigen, the union representative for the Clearwater Paper mill workers who lost their jobs.

"I can't answer that," Teigen said.

Asked about the possibility of a union at the Lewiston sawmill, Atkison said open and direct communication is something Idaho Forest Group prizes in its interactions with customers, suppliers and employees.

"That's just a core value for us," Atkison said. "We hope to preserve those values in Lewiston."

Idaho Forest Group has four other lumber mills in Idaho and none of them are union-represented operations.

Former and future sawmill employees aren't the only people affected by the change in ownership.

By January, the combined unemployment rate of Asotin County in Washington, Nez Perce County and the four other north central Idaho counties will likely climb by 0.2 percent, said Kathryn Tacke, an economist for the Idaho Department of Labor in Lewiston.

North central Idaho was at 8.7 percent in September, the most recent month that statistics are available, while Asotin County was at 8.4 percent in the same month.

That estimate doesn't include additional job losses that will occur at other businesses as former mill employees reduce spending in places like stores and restaurants, Tacke said.

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Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.