Workers at Kimberly-Clark Corp.’s pulp and paper mills may be down today, but they’re not out. Not by a long shot.
Many of the hundreds of employees affected by Thursday’s announcement that the plant will close early next year are skilled manufacturing workers. Those skills are very much in demand locally, said Sue Ambler, president and CEO of the Workforce Development Council Snohomish County.
That doesn’t make losing a good-paying job easy to take, of course. News that talks to sell the plant to Atlas Holdings had broken down was an unexpected shock.
Officials said enviromental issues involving the East Waterway adjacent to the plant couldn’t be overcome. Dioxin, a cancer-causing toxin that is a byproduct of the chlorine-based pulp making process, has been found in the East Waterway. The cost of cleaning it up isn’t yet known, but could climb into the scores of millions.
Closure of Everett’s last such mill would have been much more crushing — to mill workers and the local economy — if not for an aerospace sector that’s ramping up production and looking for skilled workers. WorkSource Snohomish County is geared up to help K-C workers land on their feet, offering specially designed workshops, including a job fair next Thursday and an education fair on Dec. 21. (For details, go to www.worksourceonline.com and click on the Kimberly-Clark link.)
Key to moving successfully into a new job, Ambler said, is how workers perceive themselves. Someone who has spent all of their working life in pulp and paper manufacturing (indeed, who is a second- or third-generation mill worker) may not realize how transferable their skills are. “K-C workers have lots of upscale training,” Ambler said. Some may require a short-term training program as a bridge to the aerospace industry, but others could be hired by Boeing right now, she said.
“They’ll be super marketable in all kinds of advanced manufacturing.”
These are workers who clearly valued their jobs at the mill and wanted to keep them. Union members reached a five-year agreement with Atlas in October that included significant concessions in order to secure about 300 jobs. The hope, now apparently dashed, was that a successful operation eventually would return to pre-sale employment numbers of around 750.
But knowing that the skills they gained there might just land them another local, good-paying job should instill some confidence. It also offers a genuine opportunity for personal growth and renewal.
Their emotions may be roiling today, but K-C workers truly do have reason for optimism.
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