Now down to only 70 people, Green Bay's Georgia Pacific Day Street Mill enters final phase of shutdown
GREEN BAY - Toilet paper production has ended and the first of Georgia Pacific's Day Street Mill's paper machines has been shut down.
As the company enters the final phase of closing the 121-year-old plant on the Fox River north of downtown Green Bay, only about 70 of the mill's 170 employees remain on the job.
Georgia-Pacific announced in March that it would close the mill, citing the older, less-cost-competitive machinery at Day Street, changing customer demand, toilet paper production upgrades and investments at other company manufacturing plants.
The shutdown, which was scheduled to take 18 months, has been going "pretty much as planned," said Mike Kawleski, Georgia-Pacific spokesperson.
First, the mill ended its bath tissue line. Last month, it completed the second phase, shutting down its paper machine, he said, ahead of schedule. The shutdown was initially planned for September, but the company was able to move faster because Day Street is now receiving paper from a mill in Georgia, according to Kawleski.
The napkin converting line — the last part of the operation that is still operating — will run through September 2023, according to Kawleski. After next month, there will still be roughly 40 people working on that product, he said.
Kawleski estimates that three-fourths of the mill's employees have moved, or said they will move, to the company's other facilities in the area, including the Broadway Mill and Packerland converting facility. A "big portion" of the remaining employees decided to retire, he said, while others left for other jobs.
"We're just glad that we're keeping as many of our folks as possible," Kawleski said.
Keith McKeefry, who's worked at Day Street for nearly 40 years, is one of the people who's retiring.
"It's a difficult situation," he said about the closing of a mill that provided jobs and benefits for more than a century to the community and generations of people.
However, he said, workers have been "in survival mode" with transitions in ownership over the years and changes in the industry.
McKeefry is president of the local United Steelworkers union, which represents Day Street mill employees and other workers in the region's paper industry. He said he plans to stay involved with the union after retirement.
As for what will eventually happen to the Day Street property, "the standard thing that happens," Kawleski said, is that the equipment is either transferred to other facilities or decommissioned, while recycling as much as possible.
"Then usually we demo the buildings, as well," he said.
City officials see the riverfront site as an area for potential redevelopment if Georgia-Pacific doesn't sell it to another paper manufacturer or other industrial user.
The shutdown of Day Street coincides with a $500 million expansion at its Broadway Mill, which will add a new paper machine. The work started this summer and is expected to be completed in 2024.
"We're in the beginning stages of construction there," Kawleski said, adding the company is currently filling jobs connected with that development.
The expansion will produce a Brawny towel line and other premium towel products, which is "a little bit of a departure for the Broadway Mill," Kawleski said. Currently, that facility primarily produces away-from-home products, he said, such as toilet paper, napkins, facial tissue and paper towels that people may see in places like restaurant bathrooms and hotel rooms. Brawny towels are a retail product.
About 800 employees currently work at the Broadway Mill, Kawleski said.
Reach Becky Jacobs at bjacobs@gannett.com or 920-993-7117. Follow her on Twitter at @ruthyjacobs.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Green Bay Georgia-Pacific paper mill continues shutdown
