The layoffs at Rayonier Advanced Materials (RYAM) in Témiscaming began over the weekend, explained Unifor Local 233 President Stéphane Lefebvre, who expects the first round to include 50 job losses of the pending 275.
“The reality is setting in,” Lefebvre detailed. “It’s an eerie feeling to walk through the old mill and it be silenced.”
“RYAM clearly does not want to be here,” Lefebvre added, made clear by “shutting down half the mill and putting the other half up for sale – they have no interest in being in Témiscaming.”
“For the whole of this site to be successful,” Lefebvre continued, “the best option is to find an operator to run the whole site.”
There are “two solutions to our problem,” Lefebvre added. One is that “RYAM decides to partner up with the local group here and start the specialty cellulose back up and run the site as a whole.” A partnership of that sort would work, he noted. The second solution is for RYAM to sell outright.
https://www.baytoday.ca/local-news/union-leader-wants-ryam-to-sell-as-layoffs-begin-9340289