Economy Woes
Montana’s Flathead Valley Loses 345 Jobs in One Day
By Courtney Lowery, 1-08-09
The Flathead Beacon is reporting two large employers in the valley are planning massive layoffs:
Plum Creek Timber Company announced today it is eliminating 145 jobs and temporarily laying off 221 employees. Story is here.
Semitool also announced it is laying off 280 worldwide, 200 of those employees being in Kalispell and Libby. That story is here.
The Flathead which had been one of the state's fastest growing economic hubs, seems to be taking the brunt of the recession in Montana today.
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"Eroding demand for our products" isn't exactly the language any corporate executive wants to use about their industry; however, finally the timber industry is being straight and honest with the public, which is a good thing.
Remember, as recently as a few months ago (and certainly over the past five years as many of us warned of the dire economic consequences of over-consumption and over-development) the timber industry and their supporters (including the past publisher and environmental reporter for the Missolian) were still telling us that the timber industry just needed more trees from national forests to solve their problems.
NewWest readers could go back and look at many articles and accompanying comment sections for some of this "we need to just log our national forests more" rhetoric. That was never the case during this emerging economic crisis, which is rooted in over-consumption/development. And it certainly isn't the case when you consider Plum Creek specifically, the largest private land owner in Montana (and the nation) that has unlimited access to their own timber lands.
Hopefully, elected officials and the public will now better understand the true and honest scope of the situation facing the timber industry so that we can better move forward with solutions. I've said all along that solutions not based on economic reality really don't get us anywhere and certainly don't help workers or communities get on the right track for a clean, green and sustainable future.