Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Evergreen purchasing Cosmopolis Pulp Mill.

I have been itching to report on rumblings of Evergreen Pulp's potential purchase of the pulp mill in the Aberdeen, Washington area. The Daily World I could not get anyone to confirm it at our facility. Shows where I am on the pecking or "need to know" list. I have been hassling management on this subject for awhile. Particulars have not been shared with us "lowly hourly union" types. The news is a great boon for the ex-worker/future workers at the "Cosi" pulp mill. Evergreen seems to be committed to communities/workers and environment so far in the Northern California area. There will be many obstacles to hurdle over to bring the Cosi plant up to production. I hope there is a spirit of cooperation for all involved on the Washington coast. My wife and I actually checked out the Cosmopolis Mill summer before last and the Grays Harbor area is beautiful and pristine. The Pulp Mill loomed large in the landscape, but not nearly as large as ours here on the peninsula. I wish all the potential workers well.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could this mean an eventual move to Washington of the entire Evergreen operation?

Anonymous said...

I lost my job in this closure (after 32yrs)and have lived in Cosmopolis all of my life. I recently took a job in Springfield, Oregon just to continue my career. If this purchase takes place I will definetly jump at the chance for re-employment there. Cosi is a great little town and I miss it a lot.

Anonymous said...

I lost my whore of a wife up in Grey's Harbor, and that was a good thing!

samoasoftball said...

2:01pm I would not think so. We are a high production plant of a different nature. Hey, it rains over 80 inches a year up there. Twice the amount of Humboldt County. How am I supposed to play softball in that!

3:21pm Better get those applications ready. The Cosi plant I am sure will be brought on line as soon as possible. Evergreen is pretty much a "no-nonsense" type outfit. Get production moving, iron out details later. We have been meeting or sometimes blowing away projections. Why? They give out bonus incentives pretty commonly. I was skeptical at first, but we have only missed our quotas a few times this last year. They are a stickler on accountability. That can be a double edged sword. Good Luck!

Anonymous said...

"Evergreen seems to be committed to communities/workers and environment so far in the Northern California area."

They've seemed that way, but it's nice to hear it from the inside.

samoasoftball said...

Jennifer-And you as a surfer must remember the days when Simpson and Louisiana Pacific Pulp Mills were not good environmental stewards. I was a witness firsthand of some things those two outfits should have been ashamed of. They paid for it in the long run, but because of Simpson's refusal invest in environmental upgrades, they cast aside hundreds of Humboldt County workers in the early 90's. I see hope with Evergreen for the future.

Anonymous said...

What happens to the mill if the port doesn't get money to develop the rail and shipping into a container port? Does Evergreen need rail? Do the need container shipping?

samoasoftball said...

11:59am-Evergreen would be greatly helped in having rail service. We used to train out our product, just like Emmerson, Schmidbauer, Hambro Particleboard and all gravel outfits up this way.

Currently we have trucks (Not local workers)carrying containers come up from the bay area and take our product by truck to the Oakland Terminal where the containers are loaded onto ships. We also ship a limited amount here with limitations because of the shallow bay capacity.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Richard.