KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp., Northbrook, Ill., USA, has received and agreed to an offer from the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Union Local 153 to unconditionally return to work from their strike that commenced at the Longview, Wash., mill on August 27.

The company initiated an orderly transition process bringing back mill employees beginning this past Tuesday (September 8), and will gradually ramp up to full employment and production over the next week. Longview Box employees have already been scheduled in as of Monday.

KapStone earlier this week announced that it had restarted its No. 11 paper machine at the Longview mill in accordance with a contingency plan to operate the mill in the event of a strike. This is the second of the mill's five paper machines to be brought back online following a work stoppage initiated on August 27 by the AWPPW union, Local 153. The first machine to resume operations was PM 10, the mill's largest machine. PM 10 produces containerboard primarily for KapStone's corrugated box plants in the Pacific Northwest region. It was restarted on Monday, August 31, after a maintenance outage that followed the work stoppage.

 

PM 11, KapStone's most flexible machine, produces a broad range of kraft paper products for external customers both in the U.S. and abroad. A number of the company's specialty products are produced on this machine, including its unique line of extensible kraft papers.

KapStone Paper and Packaging is the fifth largest producer of containerboard and corrugated packaging products and is the largest kraft paper producer in the U.S. The company has four paper mills, 21 converting plants, and 65 distribution centers. It has approximately 6,200 employees.