Duluth’s Georgia-Pacific plant closing; 141 to lose jobs
August 21, 2012 at 7:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Georgia-Pacific will permanently close its Duluth hardboard plant at the end of the month, putting 141 employees out of work.
Continue Reading
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
35 
75
There you go deep in the Kool-Aid with your radical left talking points again Quagmire.
The truth is, states that are not being ruined by radical leftist legislation are doing fine quagmire. DFLers are putting much more time, energy, and public resources in to midnight picnics at Thompson Hill, Gay Marriage, and fighting voter ID that fighting for good jobs for working men and women.
Further truth is DFL anti-business policy in MN has more to do with the plant closing than the radical left’s boogiemen the Koch brothers.
The article states, “This is now the sixth large mill in the state that’s been permanently closed in five years,” and, “Each of those companies still make those products,”, “they’re just not making them in Minnesota.”
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
96 
50
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
30 
59
Quag – how about you take a dose of your medicine and keep your hate off of this site?
Hot debate. What do you think?
34 
21
Show me where I said anything bad about Koch or blamed him for the closing. All I suggested was for people to make up their own minds. As far as DFL, have you seen his site?
Hot debate. What do you think?
23 
29
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
10 
28
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
32 
51
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
34 
51
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
28 
43
Yeah, Koch should keep unprofitable ventures running. Because businesses do well when they’re losing money…..
The other 40,000 employees of GP deserve an employer that cares about them and the health of their company. The displaced workers have 512 jobs to choose from within the company. Sometimes you have to move to find work. Our ancestors did it regularly.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
81 
26
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
18 
45
Having been a casualty of the recession and permanently “laid off”, you have my empathy Superwood workers.
I have repeatedly cited GP’s hardboard plant “Superwood” as one of many existing employers where the City, State, DEDA, etc should be proactively encouraging reinvestment in new equipment, facilities through either tax exemptions, enterprise zones, etc. I also cited Advanstar, the only publishing business that’s left, I believe.
Keeping modern, efficient facilities is one way to maintain a competitive edge, esp in a high cost state like Minn.
For Superwood, it’s too late.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
80 
7
Before everyone starts running around saying the sky is falling, let me say that this is tough for the city and area and very rarely do these type of jobs EVER come back. However Sappi is reinvesting nearly a quarter of a billion dollars to extend the life of the Cloquet Mill. So lets stop and think before we start blaming the state of Minnesota for not kissing the feet of our “job creators” enough lets realize that this is a capitalist system at work. There are winners and losers today Duluth is a loser and in the future we will be winners.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
47 
25
An example of creative destruction, the two edged sword of capitalism. For those who are clueless, this is ultimately a good thing, it is the result of improvements in technology and productivity, and is the dynamic of a healthy system of economics. It is too much government intrusion into the market system that creates stagnation. There should only be enough government over site to keep customers and providers honest and products safe.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
47 
13
I don’t know what the particular problems at GP Superwood were that forced them to close it. If they can make money doing it somewhere else there must have been something. Fall in demand for the product? Higher costs operating here compared to somewhere else? Had to be one of the two. If we knew which one it was, maybe we could do something about it.
The unfortunate thing about this situation is that there is sort of a scorched earth thing going on with these forest products plants.
After Butler Taconite was closed and parted out so quickly to meet the then state laws (a Perpich era law to beautify the region that required the mining companies to tear down closed plants and reclaim the site within 3 years of closure), the laws were changed so that the key assets in an iron mining plant couldn’t be removed for 5 years after closure. Reserve Mining was closed after this change and ultimately reopened as Cyprus Northshore. Butler Taconite would be running today in some form had it been left alone for a few years.
The wood industry plants are stripped of key equipment almost immediately after closure, eliminating the chance for someone else to step in and reopen the mill like Cyprus did with Reserve. In the article, GP stated they would strip key equipment immediately.
Maybe it’s time to think about a similar law for other heavy industrial plants. Maybe this is just more interference by the heavy hand of government in the natural order of things. I don’t know. I think it’s worth a debate. It would certainly give a little more breathing room for dealing with these situations. Maybe this is something for Mr Brandt’s Timber Producer’s Association to persue? Comments?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
45 
10
BK – thanks for that. As I stated above, I’ve been on these boards touting sales tax exemptions for new investments in capital (facilities, equipment, machinery, computers, office equipment and the like) but always with this little voice at the back of my head that recalls Diamond Took & Horseshoe’s closure and the asset stripping of the West End (?) plant – all the stuff was moved to So Carolina.
So, yeah, maybe a proviso, like the one for mining could be enforced for any capital that is purchased with sales tax exemption, etc.
Good point.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
39 
9
The natural order of things? What kind of divine free market gospel have you been sold? I see lots of Tax Free JOBZ signs all over the northland. Perhaps the problem isn’t caused locally. Perhaps it is because big-league American investors have all their chips in other countries, and their money can tip the scales so heavily that U.S. manufacturing is doomed to fail. You know… as has been happening since the 1970s? But that kind of rationale requires an individual to think beyond the four walls known as Duluth.
Small town, small minds.
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
Case in point: Argentina. Workers there continued working at their plants after the owner shut them down. They were ultimately evicted by police force, because the owner planned to sell off all the equipment to 3rd world countries overseas.
You’ve got it all wrong. First, the government always comes to the aid of the investment landlord class. Second, your owners and business executives DO NOT WANT YOU TO HAVE A HIGH STANDARD OF LIVING. Once you achieve a high standard of living, they fire you so they can hire someone else willing to do the work for pennies on the dollar.
The proviso for keeping equipment that Blighty mentioned is actually something we can agree on. However, since it’s a good idea, it will be immediately be shut down by the “it’s anti-business” crowd. It’s an added stipulation on big businesses that, as we all know, are entitled to tax-free everything and no government interference.
Like or Dislike:
1 
2
Isn’t Duluth luck to have other industries that can absorb these displaced workers? The displaced workers should easily be able to find jobs in the hospitality industry cleaning hotel rooms and toilets or flipping burgers and bussing tables. Duluth is indeed lucky to have such a thriving economy thanks in large part to 50 years of Democrat rule over this area. “Did you want fries with that”… Duluths new motto.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
47 
27
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
24 
51
Funny. It’s businesses, just like this one, that DFLers want to jack the tax rate up on. This will happen more and more in this economy of we don’t get these tax hiking DFLers out of office.
Hot debate. What do you think?
36 
27
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
16 
28
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
11 
26
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
12 
22
More hate and journalistic intolerance from Repubs that worship Bush, Pawlenty, Walker, Chippy, Romney, DFL Exposed, and the Kochs.
Hot debate. What do you think?
15 
24
Walker has been in office 1 year, has started to turn the state around, and the libs are calling to throw him under the bus. Hussein has been in office almost 4 years and the libs say he needs another four years to accomplish something…anything. Hypocritical much?
Like or Dislike:
4 
5
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
7 
19
Thanks for heads up, kinda scary…kinda like this…
http://images.sodahead.com/polls/002060551/2051819401_Teaparty20nutjobs_xlarge.jpeg
Like or Dislike:
6 
5
That is scary, maybe things DON’T go better with Koch.
Like or Dislike:
6 
5
Some of these workers may still be able to live and work in Duluth — Duluth, Georgia that is!
Like or Dislike:
19 
9
Well at least they’ve stopped blaming George Bush for everything, eh? Why are libs always blaming others for things they don’t like, but never willing to accept responsibility for their own destructive behavior?
Like or Dislike:
4 
3
“Why are libs always blaming others for things they don’t like, but never willing to accept responsibility for their own destructive behavior?”
The same thing could be said about the right-wing, tenfold. You refuse to acknowledge that it’s not taxes, but the concentration of wealth that is crippling the economy. And you constantly blame liberals for things you don’t like, because you refuse to listen to anybody who doesn’t agree with you. Pot – kettle.
Like or Dislike:
5 
3
Also, there’s some low-life on here who constantly tweaks the ratings whenever they post… oftentimes 2nd from the top. Why does Forum refuse to look into this, and what does this individual think their time and energy is achieving?
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
Irony, someone that tweaks the thumbs down vote and complains about voter fraud. Not meant against you Merv just the little devil doing it.
Like or Dislike:
1 
3