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Boise Cascade plans White City cuts No layoffs in works, but hours will be reduced By David Preszler WHITE CITY � Boise Cascade will cut production at its sawmill here and at four other Northwest sawmills this summer, the company said Monday. No long-term employee layoffs were announced at the White City sawmill, but hours will be cut this month and part of the plant will close for two weeks in July. Company officials said the cuts were brought on by weakening market conditions. They said higher interest rates, decreased demand, an increase in lumber imports and excess inventories have created "an imbalance between supply and demand." Bob Smith, Boise�s area employee relations manager, said the 50 employees at the White City sawmill won�t work any more Fridays in June, essentially cutting their hours by 20 percent. The sawmill operates two shifts � a day shift and a swing shift � Monday through Friday. After the Fourth of July holiday, the sawmill portion of plant will remain closed until July 17. July 3 and July 4 are company holidays, so production will actually cease after the June 30 swing shift. The closed sawmill will affect about 25 employees. The other 25, who operate the planer, will continue to work. The July downtime will count as vacation time for the sawmill�s employees under the company�s vacation policy, Smith said. Workers get a lump-sum payment in June for their annual paid vacation. They take the vacation time either as a group when the company dictates or individually. Since the vacation year starts in June, Smith said the shutdown will count as vacation for most employees. The companywide cutbacks, staggered at five Northwest mills over June and July, will essentially cut eight and a half weeks of production, affecting 550 employees. The temporary cutbacks will play out differently at each mill, since each mill produces different products and operates differently. The only other Oregon sawmill affected is in La Grande. Production also will be curbed at Boise�s sawmill in Yakima, Wash., as well as two Idaho mills, in Cascade and Emmett. The production cutbacks will not immediately affect Boise�s other Rogue Valley plants, including its other three in White City. Smith said it�s too soon to tell if production will be trimmed at those facilities as a result of weaker market conditions. Housing construction is slowing nationally in response to higher interest rates. Smith said that slowdown is a key part of the recent weakening in the industrial lumber market. It has also been hurt by a sharp increase in imported industrial lumber. Smith said Boise�s plywood and lamented veneer lumber operations � the bulk of its other Rogue Valley operations � aren�t as affected by imports. However, if the housing market continues to weaken, Smith said the market for those products could be affected. In other news, Boise Cascade announced that it will purchase Alliance Forest Products-Joists, Inc., a division of Alliance Forest Products. AllJoists manufactures wood I-joists at a plant in Edmunston, New Brunswick. Boise will pay $17 million in Canadian dollars for AllJoint. Boise officials said the deal will allow the company to expand its engineered wood-products business. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA