BUCKSPORT, Maine - It's been almost three months since more then 500 workers at Verso Paper walked out the gate of the mill in Bucksport for the last time. Some have found jobs, but many more are still looking.On any given day, you can find them at the community center in Orland, where "figuring out what's next" has replaced the routines and camaraderie they once shared inside the mill.
She'd hoped to make a quick exit, but Arline Lamarche's former Verso colleagues aren't having it. "Don't make me cry now!"
Lamarche is pulled into one embrace after another near the end of the long conference table at the Orland Transition Center. Since the shutdown in Bucksport, Lamarche has worked here as a peer support counselor helping former colleagues find their way. She's leaving today for Bangor and a new job with Maine Department of Labor.
"I was a scheduler in the mill," she says, "so I was in contact with a lot of people. Did their schedules, did their payroll. We had a community in the mill and that's kind of what we're trying to create here, to help people."
They show up, daily, to file for unemployment, polish resumes, job hunt, send out applications and research training opportunities. Sometimes, says Lamarche, they just come to drink coffee, eat donuts and chat.
The idea, she says, was to convince workers to come hang out at the transition center, instead of stewing at home. And there's plenty to stew over. "People are going to have to move on. But you don't know what a big task it's going to be for each individual. You're going to find people who are floating out there, who don't have a clue what they want to do."
An initial burst of job openings last fall has slowed to a trickle. A chart, tacked to a bulletin board at the transition center, tells the story. Of the 578 workers who lost jobs when the mill shut down, around 120 have found work elsewhere. Few of those jobs, though, are likely to be paying the kind of money they were making in Bucksport.
"Can you estimate what your adjusted gross income was?" Kate Kevit asks Ryan Pickoski. "It was $70,000," he says. "And was that all earned from work?" she asks. "Yes," he responds. "You are a dislocated worker by federal definition," she concludes.
Kevit, with the Maine Educational Opportunity Center, leads Pickoski through a federal financial aid application. Pickoski, who began at the mill shortly after graduating from Bucksport High School, is thinking about going for a degree in fire science at the University of Maine at Orono.
As the years passed, and his salary grew, Pickoski began to put pieces of his long-term financial plan in place. He bought a house in Brewer, land on Brewer Lake and rental properties in Bucksport and Bangor.
The goal, he says, was to eventually retire and live off his real estate investments. "And then I lost my job. So my plan is kind of backfiring at the moment."
Even with his severance from Verso, Pickoski says it will still be difficult to pay the $6,000 property tax bill that's come due on his place in Brewer. He thought, briefly, about a new career in radiology, but notes that a friend had to move out of state recently to find a job in the field. A fire science degree, he says, would open the door to a job with a fire department, where the pay would at least be decent.
Money, though, isn't the only thing weighing on Pickoski and his colleagues. Working in a paper mill, it goes without saying, isn't like most other jobs out there. "I think I've put on five pounds since I've gotten done," he says. "For me, that's a lot of weight. You know, put on five pounds. That's ridiculous! I never varied a pound in my life."
Paul Dean worked at the Bucksport mill for more than 30 years. For Dean and his colleagues, the clock was the great common denominator. It represented financial security, a deep sense of community and predictable routines. "What you eat, when you get up, when you go to work, when you come home - all that," Dean says.
About 10 years ago, Dean began working day shifts at the mill. He thinks the switch to days has made it easier to adjust to being laid off from his job. For all those who worked the night shift, it may be a while before life starts to feel normal again.
