PORT TOWNSEND — No decision has been made regarding the paper bag-making plant at Port Townsend Paper Corp.
Company President John Begley had planned to decide by the end of September whether to stop bag production. He wrote to his employees Monday to give them a situation report.
The company plans to have an independent study done to determine what options it has short of laying off 100 workers and stopping production. The study could be completed by mid-October, he said.
Company spokesman Chuck Madison said Jim Tusler of the Washington State Labor Council suggested the feasibility study.
Bob Hughes of the Washington State Department of Employment Security indicated to company representatives that it could fund as much as $15,000 for the study, Madison said.
Neither Tusler nor Hughes was available to comment more specifically about what the study would ascertain.
Madison said Hughes, who works in Employment Security’s displaced worker unit, worked with the owners of the former Rayonier Inc. pulp mill in Port Angeles when that complex was shut down in 1997.
Port Townsend Paper has been competing in a dwindling market for paper bags. Lower-cost plastic bags cost just one-half cent each to produce, while paper bags average 5 cents to 6 cents each, Madison said.
This full story appears in today’s editions of the Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get your PDN delivered to your home or office.
