Smurfit-Stone workers meet with Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, state labor leaders

Intending to start the meeting on a lighter note, Schweitzer’s opening salvo was: "We are from the government and we’re here to help."

While everyone in the room got the joke, neither the audience nor the governor laughed.

How will Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. workers get help if the Missoula Job Service and the College of Technology are already overextended with the jobless clients they’re already serving?

Will access to unemployment information and benefits be difficult for people who don’t use a computer – or who don’t own a computer?

And what will happen to workers when their health insurance benefits run out and they have pre-existing medical conditions?

So came the questions from about 40 Smurfit workers early Tuesday during a meeting with Gov. Brian Schweitzer and state labor leaders at Missoula’s Union Hall. What will happen, they asked, to the mill’s 417 employees after the Frenchtown linerboard plant permanently closes on Dec. 31?

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_bd6d0680-ef38-11de-987e-001cc4c002e0.html

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Governor Schweitzer Holds Meetings in Missoula on Wood Products Industry, Smurfit Closure

Governor Brian Schweitzer today held two meetings in Missoula about the wood products industry and the Smurfit Stone Container closure. A meeting was held with union workers and the community.

“We are doing everything we can to provide assistance to those workers dislocated by the closure and will be working closely with labor and management to ensure that all state and federal lay-off assistance, including retraining assistance and health insurance extension benefits are made available,” said Governor Schweitzer.

“The State will also be working closely with labor leaders, employers, local government officials, educators and workforce development professionals to explore and identify alternative uses for the Smurfit site that could involve new green technologies and biomass electricity production, said Governor Schweitzer.”

Over the past 16 years, the western region of the state has experienced a succession of business closures and lay-offs in timber harvesting, sawmills and wood products processing operations, resulting in ripple effect impacts to secondary businesses – especially in smaller communities within the region. Still, Montana’s wood products industry employs about 9,000 people and has an annual lumber production (2008) of 684 million board feet

The closure of Smurfit means a loss of over 400 jobs in Missoula and the surrounding area. The Governor and state officials are meeting with those workers and their families today to make sure that they are made aware of services that may be provided by the state, such as:

* Unemployment Insurance Benefits

* Job Search Assistance

* Job Training and Retraining Programs

* Additional Service to help find and retain new jobs

* Green Jobs

The State’s Rapid Response Team will be convening informational meetings for all impacted workers in the region in January.