More than 120 union mill workers in Weed, California, found out Dec. 3 that they’re losing their jobs. The closure of the Roseburg Forest Products wood veneer production facility is a major loss for the Northern California town, population 2,716.
Machinists Woodworkers Lodge W-12 represents most of the 140 people employed at the facility. Most jobs ended immediately on Dec. 3, but workers will receive pay and health insurance coverage through Feb. 3, including higher pay if they typically worked overtime.
– Local W-12 vice president Eric Wafford
Eric Wafford, chief shop steward and vice president of W-12, said there aren’t other well-paid union jobs in the community.
“All the businesses — the restaurants, the grocery stores that are local to Weed — are going to be impacted by this. The loggers and everybody who owns a log truck who’s been pulling logs up here for the last 20-plus years, they’re all going to be impacted,” Wafford said. “It goes outside of the union membership. It’s going to impact the whole area greatly.”
Roseburg Forest Products has offered $7,500 relocation bonuses to workers who move to take jobs at other Roseburg facilities, Wafford said. A dozen workers are staying on the job in Weed through March 3 and will also get a bonus.
Wafford said Roseburg has been a good employer in Weed, offering good wages and benefits, promoting from within, and providing college scholarships to local teens. Hourly wages started around $25 for operations and topped out around $42 for electricians, Wafford said.
At a Dec. 11 Weed City Council meeting, council members described the gravity of layoffs and efforts to assist impacted workers, urging positivity and resilience.
The local community college organized a job fair a week after the closure was announced. Community groups, businesses, and neighbors donated food and other essentials and put on toy drives to help millworker families that were hit with devastating job losses before Christmas.
Mayor Darrell Parham said the city has had a rough year with business closures and fires. A September fire burned multiple buildings on Main Street.
The timber industry has been the primary employer for the City of Weed, which was named for a lumber mill owner. But layoffs have hit local lumber operations repeatedly over decades. Massive fires in 2014 and 2022 — the latter starting in a Roseburg warehouse — have also devastated the local community.
When Wafford started working for Roseburg Forest Products 13 years ago, the old timers in the mill said every year that the mill was on the verge of closing. The company has made strong efforts to keep operations afloat, Wafford said. But hearing about mills closing left and right every week, watching prices of materials and replacement parts increase, and seeing Roseburg making huge investments to advance other facilities, he knew a closure was on the horizon. The closure coming this soon, right before Christmas, still came as a shock.
Wafford said the overwhelming emotion among members at a union meeting after the closure was sadness, not anger.
“This is one of those few places you go where there’s a union membership that gets to go to work every day and get treated like you should by your employer,” Wafford said. “It’s been a great relationship, and it’s just a very sad situation that … we no longer reflect part of (Roseburg’s) business model.”
In a press release, Roseburg said it was ceasing operations in Weed to consolidate veneer production at its Oregon mills. Roseburg did not respond to requests for additional information.
Most other W-12 members work for employers in Klamath Falls, more than an hour from Weed.
“A good union job in this area, you won’t find it. You’ve got to go to Oregon,” Wafford said.
