Union blasts company, provincial governments over layoffs at plant near North Bay

It’s been a devastating week for Temiscaming, a town in northwestern Quebec located on the Ontario-Quebec border.

Rayonier Advanced Materials shut down the high-purity cellulose plant operations indefinitely Monday morning, laying off 275 employees.

“The final sheet came off the dry machine in the specialty cellulose mill at around 6:30 a.m.,” said UNIFOR Local 233 president Stephane Lefebvre.

“This means the end for a lot of people and a lot of lost jobs.”

The company that owns the plant, Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) headquartered out of Jacksonville, Fla., announced the layoffs in late April, citing sluggish sales.

“Given current market conditions and high capital and fixed costs associated with the HPC plant, this decision will help mitigate the plant’s ongoing operating losses and improve the company’s consolidated free cash flow,” the company said in a previous news release.

But the union is blasting the company for abandoning the municipality.

Rayonier Advanced Materials shut down the high-purity cellulose plant operations indefinitely Monday morning, laying off 275 employees. (Eric Taschner/CTV News)

“I don’t know what RYAM’s plans are. They won’t share anything with me and they won’t share anything with me about a sale,” Lefebvre told CTV News.

“If they don’t sell, what’s RYAM’s future here?”

The plant has an annual production capacity of 150,000 metric tons, with 30 per cent historically dedicated to specialty cellulose materials.

“Persistent market weakness, uncertain availability of affordable wood fibre and high capital and fixed costs have posed significant challenges for the Temiscaming HPC plant,” said company CEO De Lyle Bloomquist at the time.

“This decision, which we do not take lightly, is made only after a rigorous strategic review in which multiple alternatives were thoroughly explored. We are mindful of the impact this will have on affected employees and will take appropriate measures to assist these employees in keeping with the collective agreement, RYAM values and applicable law.”

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High purity cellulose is used in a variety of products, from construction materials to food and pharmaceutical products. RYAM acquired the nearly 100-year-old plant from TEMBEC in late 2017.

“RYAM does not want to sell anything that would compete with their core business, is what they’ve told us and we’re not sure where we’re going to go from here,” Lefebvre said.

“An entire town is in peril as a result of the unilateral decision of an American company that seems to place little importance on the fate of Temiscaming workers.”