JAY -- The high cost of oil set a match to 150 more jobs in southern Franklin county this week when Wausau Paper said it could no longer absorb the energy costs needed to operate one of its two paper machines here.
Wausau spokesman Perry Gruebner, director of investor relations at the Wisconsin-based company, on Tuesday said its "No. 10" paper-product machine would shut down no later than Dec. 31, taking with it the workers who ran it.
"It's financially impossible" to continue running the operation, Gruebner said from his office in Mosinee, Wisc., declining to say what those costs were. The company has a second machine at its facility in Jay that the company says it will continue to operate because its product is different and earnings-to-cost ratio is better.
The machine targeted for shutdown in makes paper that's used in the backing for adhesive labels. The second machine produces niche and masking-tape-like materials.
Wausau employs 235 people at the facility, and 2,600 worldwide, with $1.6 billion in sales.
Statewide, thousands of workers have drained away from the paper-mill industry since 2000.
Last year, about 8,500 people worked in 36 paper mills and related offices statewide, according to the Maine Department of Labor. But seven years ago, Maine hosted 54 paper mills and offices that had employed 12,800 people.
In Jay, affected employees are a mix of union and salaried workers, Gruebner said. They may apply for work within the company's other operations in Jay, but the company can't reabsorb them all, Gruebner said. Wausau has no other facility in Maine, Gruebner said.