Georgia-Pacific Corp. printing plant to close 47 positions will be lost by year's end

Warwick - Georgia-Pacific Corp. will close its printing plant on Forester Avenue in Warwick by year’s end as the paper-product company relocates equipment in a cost-efficiency move to Muskogee, Okla. Forty-seven people will lose their jobs between now and the end of the year. More than half of the employees have been with the company for 15 or more years, including a number who started on the day the press opened in 1969, said David Root, the plant facility manager. Root, who has worked at the plant for 17 years, spent much of Tuesday and Wednesday meeting with employees to explain the company’s decision. In an interview Thursday morning, he described the mood as understandably somber. “Considering what’s happened, there’s a great deal of pride in the work and in their efforts after all these years,” he said. The employees will receive what is described as the “typical” severance package, although the details were not available. Georgia-Pacific plans to sell the Warwick building and surrounding 30 acres after the plant closes in December, said company spokeswoman Anna Umphress from corporate headquarters in Atlanta, Ga. “Despite our employees’ best efforts, cost pressure within the market has made it difficult to remain competitive,” said Kevin Curry, vice president for Operations Support. “This difficult decision is part of our ongoing effort to efficiently manage our operations and more cost-effectively serve our internal customers with printed poly used in our tissue packaging. “This is in no way a reflection on the hard-working Warwick employees,” Curry added. “It is a strategic decision to reposition printing assets to more efficiently produce the materials we need to support our tissue manufacturing process.” The Warwick plant has three flexographic printing presses that print the plastic over-wrap for some of Georgia-Pacific’s well-known retail and customer brands, such as Angel Soft toilet paper and Sparkle paper towels. The plant was built in 1968 and opened in 1969. It initially was a paper printing facility; the process changed in the early 1990s to handle the printing of the plastic wraps. Root described poly printing as a craft that has a national niche, meaning it’s a relatively small business community where many of the practioners know one another. Already, a printer from York, Pa. who wants to add a shift has contacted Root about job possibilities for some of the Warwick workers. The printer, Root said, is a former Georgia-Pacific employee at Warwick. Meanwhile, a number of public officials have met with workers to offer what help they can, such as job fairs or referrals. They include Assemblywoman Annie Rabbitt, R-C-Greenwood Lake, Village of Warwick Mayor Michael Newhard and Warwick Town Supervisor Michael P. Sweeton. In a press release, Rabbitt said she would contact pertinent agencies, including Orange County’s Employment and Training Administration, to offer employment services to the Georgia-Pacific workers. “It is a terrible thing to wake up one morning and find out your position is going to be eliminated,” Rabbitt said in her press release. “Your immediate thought is, ‘How will I support myself and, more importantly, my family?’ I want these people to know they are not alone, and I encourage them to work with my office to find new employment.” “We must come together to help people in need; that is how a decent community should function,” added the assemblywoman, who is up for reelection this November. “While people seek employment, we must also focus on economic development and recruiting new businesses to the plant.” The equipment will be moved out to Oklahoma over the next eight to ten weeks. Root said the work force would be reduced in three phases: the first in early June, a second in late summer and the last in early fall.