G-P to Close Florida Plywood Plant, Cut 400 Jobs

Georgia-Pacific, Atlanta, GA., will cease production at its Hawthorne, Fla., plywood plant later this fall, putting 400 people out of work, according to a report by the Florida Times-Union. The plant makes only plywood, and spokeswoman Trish Bowles attributed the action to the slowdown in home building.

"It's unprofitable everywhere," Bowles said in the newspaper report, adding that "Florida is even worse."

The Hawthorne plant will continue to operate through November 7. Bowles described it as an "indefinite curtailment" rather than a closure, leaving room for the plant to reopen. Severance packages are still unclear, she noted. Hourly employees will be subject to negotiations by their unions.

The plant, about midway between Gainesville and Palatka, Fla. has been open since 1982, converting pine logs to plywood that it sold under the names Plytanium and Sturd-I-Floor. G-P has four other plants in Florida—a chip mill and a paper mill in Palatka, a lumber mill in Cross City, and an oriented strand board mill in Palatka.

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