Learning New Skills Federal Retraining Program Gives Laid-Off Workers New Hope

When Jim George learned that Louisiana Pacific was closing its Post Falls sawmill, he was devastated.

George wasn’t sure how he would replace his $12.45 per hour job as a de-barker. He didn’t want to go back to truck driving, or uproot his family from Post Falls.

When George broke the news to his wife, Julie, she had an announcement of her own to deliver: Her pregnancy test was positive.

“The day we ran the last log through the mill, we found out we were having twins,” George said.

The mill’s closure in November 1995 could have meant financial catastrophe for the family. It was actually the start of a better life, George said.

He enrolled in the hydraulics program at Spokane Community College through a federal retraining program. For two hectic years he went to school while his wife worked full time.

George graduated last June and now earns a higher salary working for Fluid-Air Components Inc. in Spokane.

“It was the chance of a lifetime for a 37-year-old guy to be able to do this,” George said. “The mill was a job, but this is a career.”

North Idaho’s lumber and wood products industry employed about 4,500 workers in 1998 - a total that has declined by more than 500 over the past five years.

Federal retraining programs have helped cushion the loss for workers such as George.

About a third of the 108 workers laid off when the mill closed went through vocational training, said Sharlee Mikelson, job training supervisor with the Department of Labor in Coeur d’Alene.

Those who pursued college degrees are now graduating and back in the work force.

“These are the people that we are so pleased to be able to help,” Mikelson said. “Many of them went in (after high school) with the idea that they would work hard and eventually retire there.”

After L-P’s Post Falls sawmill closed, Scott Berger transferred to another mill in Saratoga, Wyo. But a month later, he returned to Post Falls.

“I could see the same trends happening there,” said Berger, 33, who didn’t want to get caught up in another round of mill closures.

Like George, he signed up for the federal retraining program. But the day he registered for classes at North Idaho College was one of the most anxiety-ridden in his life.

“I was really scared,” said Berger, who had worked at the Post Falls sawmill since he was 19. “I was taking on something really big, and I knew I had to succeed.”

An indifferent student in high school, Berger spent several semesters taking prerequisites for NIC’s nursing program.

He’ll graduate as a registered nurse this spring. Job prospects look good, said Berger, who expects to top the $14-$15 per hour wage he earned at the mill.

But Berger is also grateful for timber-industry contacts that helped put him through school. He works one graveyard shift per week at a pole yard in Newport, Wash., during the school year, and full time there during the summer months.

The income supplements his unemployment benefits and the salary his wife, Connie, earns as a food service worker in the Lakeland School District.

Like George, Berger doesn’t look back. He got his sawmill job shortly after high school. Though he didn’t intend to stay for 10 years, “it quickly lures you in,” said Berger.

Without training, he couldn’t find another job that would support a family. “You don’t think of it as permanent, but you’re not going anywhere,” Berger said.

Idaho State employment offices in Sandpoint and St. Maries are currently working with former Crown Pacific and Rayonier mill workers.

Crown Pacific closed its Colburn, Idaho, mill in February. Rayonier’s Plummer, Idaho, mill burned last summer, and the property is for sale.

But it’s harder to get workers interested in college when they have to commute an hour to the nearest community college, said Robin Dyck, a senior consultant with the state Job Service office in Sandpoint.

“It’s pretty tough for someone to drive an hour each way, five days per week, for two years,” she said.

About two dozen of the 95 Crown Pacific workers who lost their jobs have expressed interest in some form of retraining. Just a few are interested in college, she said.

A handful of the Crown Pacific workers received assistance to relocate to other mills. Others are looking for jobs in Sandpoint.

“That’s real difficult in an area like ours,” Dyck said. At $10-14 per hour, “mill jobs pay the highest.”