EVERETT – The Kimberly-Clark tissue and pulp mill isn’t on the company’s first closure list, released last week, but the facility’s future still is far from secure.
Two weeks ago, Kimberly-Clark’s chief executive officer announced plans to lay off 6,000 employees and close or sell approximately 20 facilities, streamline four and expand another seven.
The company followed up last week with a memo telling employees about the planned closure or sale of eight plants in locations from Idaho to Italy in the coming two to three years. Other plants in Arkansas, Wisconsin and the Czech Republic will be expanded.
The announcement contained no hint of what may be in store for the Everett mill, which employs about 850 people.
Scott Helker, the mill’s general manager, said he knows conflicting rumors are circulating as everyone waits to hear which 12 plants will be added to the closure list in the months to come. But he insisted that he knows no more than anyone else right now.
“I don’t know whether Everett’s on or not on the list,” he said.
Frank Prochaska, area representative for the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers, said he also hasn’t heard any news besides what has already been released. Everett employees he’s talked to are more focused on ongoing contract negotiations than rumors about the mill itself, he said.
Helker said the Everett plant’s size and range of products make it advantageous to keep open. On the other hand, it also pays higher electricity bills and higher-than-average wages than other mills. The age of the former Scott Paper mill also is a disadvantage, despite some recent machinery upgrades.
“Most of the machines are not current technology assets,” Helker said. “They’re 20 to 50 years old, and even older in the pulp mill.”
He said a concerted effort to improve efficiency and reduce costs at the Everett plant has helped, but it still can’t be called the most competitive in the company. “The best places obviously are the ones with newer facilities and lower costs,” Helker said. “That’s not us.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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