By Staff
Plymouth sawmill cuts 27 jobs with lumber demand slowed
By GREG KATSKI
Staff Writer
With the economic recession came a weakening demand for lumber. And with the weakening demand for lumber, Weyerhaeuser has been forced to make layoffs at its sawmill in Plymouth.
According to Nancy Thompson, Weyerhaeuser spokeswoman for North Carolina, the company laid off a total of 27 employees Wednesday and Thursday.
The layoffs came with a reduction of shifts at the mill from three to two, she said.
The sawmill, which produces dimension lumber, now employees 177 people.
Thompson, who has been the company’s spokeswoman for North Carolina for two and a half years, said the layoffs were the only ones made at a Weyerhaeuser sawmill in the “last couple years.”
She also said Weyerhaeuser sites around the world are “certainly facing layoffs.”
The layoffs were due to a simple case of supply and demand for Weyerhaeuser, said Thompson.
Those laid off will be offered severance, said Thompson.
The last time the company made substantial layoffs at its Plymouth campus was when it closed an on-site plywood plant in June 1997, according to a brief by the New York Times.
The plant closing resulted in the loss of 200 jobs. Weyerhaeuser, based in Tacoma, Wash., said the plant was being closed because it would cost too much to upgrade it, said the brief.