Spring Mill Employee: 'It was like being sucker-punched'

Employees leave the mill during a recent shift change as a truck brings a load of logs to the integrated paper mill. According to an employee who spoke the Herald, employees have suspected for some time that the mill might be closing, but were still caught by surprise. In any case, working at the mill has changed over the last two decades. First, employees bought the company but lost their retirement savings, in effect trading their jobs for their retirement accounts. But when non-local managers arrived, placed by the investment firm that had purchased the mill, things changed again, according to the employee. Morale dropped when it seemed that the new "outsider" managers didn't respect the employees. Now, employees are being released with just three weeks of severance pay and no extended health care benefits. "This was the final insult," the employee told the Herald.