Another WestRock facility in Washington is closing, laying off 87

Months after a nearly century-old paper mill closed in Tacoma, the same company, WestRock, is closing a packaging plant in Seattle. About 87 employees at the Seattle plant will lose their jobs come March, when the plant closes. The company notified the Washington State Employment Security Department of the layoffs on Jan. 19.

Both closures come after a new packaging plant in Longview opened last year.

Robby Johnson is the senior manager of Corporate Communications for WestRock. He wrote via email that eligible employees can reapply for other positions at other WestRock plants, including the Longview one.

In addition, Johnson said, the company is closing the Seattle plant because the upgrades made at the Longview plant mean it is better equipped. 

“The Longview facility is state-of-the-art and provides significant capabilities that allow us to more effectively and efficiently serve our customers in the Pacific Northwest,” Johnson wrote.

The company decided to close the Seattle plant more than a year after the company announced the opening of the new Longview plant, Johnson wrote. 

According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, which regulates activities with potential environmental impacts at the plant, the Longview plant has about 1,000 employees.  

The Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers Union represents employees at the Seattle plant. The union said they could not respond to questions or give a comment. WestRock and the union will engage in the effects bargaining process, Johnson wrote. Effects bargaining between the employer and union means the two negotiate on the terms of a change — in this case, the layoff — but not the change itself. 

WestRock announced last September that it would merge with the packaging company Smurfit Kappa. The fourth quarter earnings presentation for WestRock showed growth for the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) throughout the 2023 fiscal year, with a slight decrease in the fourth quarter. 

The company laid off 400 employees in Tacoma when the WestRock paper mill there closed. Johnson said he could not access information about how many of those employees were relocated to positions at the Longview plant. 

Employees reached at the Seattle plant declined to comment.