Layoffs At Chinese Camp Mill
Chinese Camp, CA – Sierra Pacific Industries is temporarily curtailing operations at the cedar mill in Chinese Camp.
"We’ve run out of cedar logs for the mill and because of the heavy snow this winter we haven’t been able to get back out to log more," says Mark Pawlicki, S.P.I. spokesperson. "There will probably be around 30 people who will continue to work in shipping and maintenance (at Chinese Camp), but 110 have been laid off temporarily."
The employees affected were notified on Monday.
"This isn’t all that unusual for a mill that operates in snow country," adds Pawlicki. "There’s more snow this year than we typically have, and we just had a smaller log deck than normal going into this winter."
S.P.I. is not sure when the mill will start bringing some of the employees back, but Pawlicki expects that crews will be able to begin retrieving more logs sometime next month.
He says this particular situation is simply weather driven, and not related to environmental lawsuits holding up supply.
Written by bjhansen@mlode.com.
