Mill closure leaves 600 out of work

After a summer of anticipation, production at UPM Miramichi stopped Friday, leaving 600people out of work.

The Finnish paper giantannounced in Junethe New Brunswick paper and groundwood mills would close by fall 2007. The company'sexport business is suffering from the strongCanadian dollarand the declining price of coated magazine paper in North America,and the mill is likelyto stay closed untilJune or even October 2008, if it restarts at all.

Company spokeswoman Sharon Pond says convincing those workers to wait out the closure is not easy. More than a dozen former UPM Miramichi employees are now working for Irving Paper.

"We know that other companies are certainly wooing our professional employees and we do know that some of the tradespeople are already booked to head out west for jobs, and if they get out there, they may decide to stay. So at this time next year there will be some difficulty in filling positions if we reopen."

UPM Miramichi has been closed for 13 of the last 33 months. A good part of that was in 2005 when workers went on strike.

The mill is Miramichi's largest employer.