Georgia-Pacific Toledo Opens Doors to Laid off Workers

The Georgia-Pacific Toledo Mill will be extending opportunities to the 111 workers who will be laid off from the Coos Bay mill, which announced on April 11 that it will be closing permanently.

The Coos Bay facility is one of two lumber mills owned by GP in Oregon, with the other located in Philomath. The Toledo facility is not in danger of closing for the same reasons the Coos Bay facility went under, according to Georgia-Pacific spokesperson C. J. Drake.

“The Coos Bay mill produced dimensional lumber, which is completely different from the containerboard produced at Toledo,” said Drake. “The Coos Bay lumber mill closure, therefore, was related to business factors and market conditions that don’t apply to Toledo.”

The Toledo mill has had a number of investments made in the facility in the past few years, including the development of the Juno project — a state-of-the-art system for recycling landfill waste into usable fiber for use in containerboard production. Drake also commented that laid off Coos Bay employees may be able to find work at the Toledo Mill.

“We are actively looking for opportunities to match qualified Coos Bay employees with vacancies at other Georgia-Pacific facilities on the West Coast,” said Drake. “We’ve also encouraged Coos Bay employees to check the company’s website for job openings. We’d certainly be interested in any employees whose skills would be aligned with our needs at Toledo, especially in skilled trades such as electricians.”

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