McKinely to shut down its Port Angeles paper mill – mass layoffs expected

The McKinley Paper Company plant in Port Angeles, WA. Photo: Sea Cow/Wikimedia Commons

The Port Angeles paper mill in Washington, produces recycled containerboard, such as liner and corrugated medium.

McKinely Paper will close its paper mill in Port Angeles, Washington, indefinitively and lay-off 193 employees.

According to the Peninsula Daily News, the company sent an email to employees earlier this week notifying them of an "indefinite mass layoff affecting approximately 193 employees."

"Based on the information available to us at this time, we hope that the facility will resume operations at some point in the future but we cannot say when”, the letter said.

According to the letter, employees released from employment before Aug. 24 will receive their full pay and benefits for the full 60-day period.  

According to the local news, Issac Rosas, the Operations Director for McKinley Paper Company, attributed the layoffs to the mill's ongoing challenges in maintaining its workforce. In 2023, the number of employees had already dropped to 174, down from 200 just nine months earlier.

McKinley Paper is a subsidiary of Bio Pappel, which is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. The company operates three paper mills in the United States, producing 100% recycled containerboard (liner and corrugated medium) and other packaging grades of paper.