Abstract
The 2016 book, Surviving Job Loss: Papermakers in Maine and Minnesota, by Kenneth A. Root and Rosemarie J. Park offers a thorough treatment of the impacts of three major job loss events at two Verso Paper facilities located in Maine and Minnesota. A Verso paper mill in Bucksport, Maine laid off 151 workers in 2011, and a Verso facility in Sartell, Minnesota, downsized by 169 positions in 2011. The Minnesota layoff event was followed 7 months later by the Sartell plant’s closure and the loss of an additional 280 jobs after an explosion and fire damaged the facility.
A large part of the book is devoted to documenting the experience of the displaced workers, along with comparisons across those affected by the three job loss events. Much of this information comes from extensive surveys of the laid-off workers, as well as some personal interviews conducted by the authors. The primary survey instrument is included in an appendix, and the survey results are spread out by major topic across most chapters of the book.
To provide some context to the paper mill job loss events in Maine and Minnesota, the second chapter of the book gives a detailed account of the pulp and paper industry. It starts with a brief history of papermaking in the United States, including its growth and prosperity in the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, then transitions into a discussion of the more recent challenges faced by U.S. paper production facilities and their surrounding communities. This chapter could be useful to researchers studying the U.S. paper industry, or state and local officials in regions with large forest products and paper sectors.
Following the macrolevel account of the U.S. paper industry, chapter 3 narrows the focus to the two Verso Paper facilities and three job loss events that make up the rest of the book. The two paper plants studied provide a nice contrast, given some differences in the workforce (e.g., the plant in Minnesota had more female workers, the facility in Maine had a combination of full-time and temporary workers), as well as the surrounding communities. For instance, an interesting quote, “Sartell is not a mill town” (p. 29), suggests that, although the paper plant was important to the Sartell community, the area, located close to St. Cloud, had other industries and businesses that were not tied to the paper facility. Moreover, a higher share of the economic activity in Bucksport, Maine was connected to the Verso Paper facility—one of the largest employers in town and its surrounding communities.
The middle part of the book chronicles what happened to the papermakers who lost their jobs in Bucksport and Sartell, drawing heavily from the worker surveys. It covers, among other topics, impacts of the layoff events on household expenditures and finance, impacts on the workers’ physical and mental health, relationships between the displaced workers and other family members, and how the layoffs affected older workers. The book has chapters devoted to the federal and state assistance programs available to displaced workers, the experience of women who lost their jobs, and the impacts when both members of a married couple suffered job losses. Findings from the worker surveys are discussed throughout the book, alongside results and perspectives from other studies pertaining to job losses and, more generally, the manufacturing industry. The book’s references section, which lists numerous articles published since 2010, could be valuable to someone studying these topics.
One of the main lessons I learned from the book is the very complex nature of major layoff events—both in their causes and effects—and their broad impacts on workers and the surrounding communities. Many of the workers surveyed by Root and Park were unable to find jobs that could replace the salaries they were earning in the paper facilities, and some workers reported negative impacts on their mental and emotional health. Other workers, however, felt that losing their jobs was “good” for them and/or their families, and some even found better jobs after leaving Verso. The book does a nice job of unpacking these complex and often contradictory impacts, and provides detailed accounts of how the workers have coped with (and moved on after) losing their jobs in the paper facilities.
In an unfortunate epilogue, the authors noted that the Bucksport Verso Paper facility closed in 2014, about 3 years after the downsizing event documented in the book. The Bucksport mill closure is one of many paper plants that experienced adverse job loss impacts since the ones studied in the book; similar impacts have occurred in other manufacturing sectors, as well as companies operating in nonmanufacturing industries. Based on what Root and Park found in their study of the Verso plant downsizings and closure, some of these job loss events will likely have similar and predictable impacts, while others will have impacts that are unique to the business and surrounding community.
Although the authors present the survey results, information from other studies, and statistics from a variety of secondary data sources in figures and tables throughout the book—and the chapters have ample references to other academic studies—the content is accessible to a general audience. In the classroom, the book could be used as a secondary text in a community development course to teach students about the impacts of job loss and, in the case of Bucksport, a small town dominated by a major employer. The biggest audience for the book, however, might be economic development professionals and local officials in places with paper mills or other large manufacturing facilities. The lessons learned from the Verso plants in Minnesota and Maine could be important to places that have experienced major job loss events, and—perhaps, even more so—in communities where these events have not (yet) occurred.