WILLOW CREEK — The Willow Creek Hardwood Flooring Company laid off 30 workers this week, the largest single reduction in the mill’s workforce since the Depression.
Mill Manager Robert T. Cunningham cited competition from lower-cost southern hardwood mills in the Carolinas and Tennessee as the primary cause. “The southern mills have lower labor costs, access to faster-growing timber, and modern equipment that we cannot afford to match,” Cunningham said. “We are losing orders that we have held for decades.”
The layoffs reduce the mill’s workforce to approximately 120 — a significant drop from the post-war peak of 158 in 1952. The night shift, already reduced from full strength, will be eliminated entirely.
“Thirty families are affected,” the Gazette reported. “In a town of 2,100 residents, that represents a significant economic blow.”
The laid-off workers include sawyers, planer operators, and kiln tenders — skilled positions that are not easily replaced. Several have already inquired about jobs at the paper mill in Millinocket or the shoe factories in Auburn and Lewiston.
“I’ve been running that planer since 1948,” said Leo Cormier, one of those laid off. “I don’t know what else I’d do. But I’ve got a family to feed, so I’ll figure it out.”
Cunningham told the Gazette that the mill was exploring new markets, including the growing demand for prefinished flooring and specialty hardwoods for the historic restoration trade. “We are not closing,” he said. “But we are shrinking. And if we do not find new markets, we will shrink further.”
The planer, which ran almost continuously since 1903, is now running three days a week. The sound of the saws, once as constant as the river, now falls silent for days at a time — a quiet that the town is learning to hear.