Long-time employees now looking for work

Published 1:45 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

Dave McNeely and Steve Roberts always knew their careers for Weyerhaeuser Co. would end someday, they just didn’t figure it would be last Wednesday.

Jan. 16 was the day they, as well as 58 other employees of Weyerhaeuser, found out the woods they logged would be bought by Evergreen Forest Trust.

It was McNeely’s last day of work after more than 42 years of employment with Weyerhaeuser, and Roberts’ last day after 33 years.

“I felt dismay. I just felt empty, like it was a loss in the family,” Roberts said. “Everyone was pretty devastated. Some of their faces just went white.”

After work on Tuesday, Jan. 15, some Weyerhaeuser employees were informed that a meeting had taken place that day with people from the company’s corporate headquarters in Federal Way. The next morning, all the employees were told operations in the Snoqualmie Tree Farm would cease.

It didn’t come as a complete surprise to either McNeely or Roberts.

“I could see there would be some kind of temporary shutdown or something because we weren’t falling any timber. They told us we couldn’t get any permits,” said McNeely, of North Bend. “It was probably because this was in the works.”

McNeely, Roberts and their coworkers will receive two months’ pay. Roberts hopes Weyerhaeuser will lift the restrictions on retirement, which mandate that an employee must work until age 62 to qualify for full benefits.

At 61, McNeely was closer than most to retiring.

“There are a lot of them that are worse off than I am,” he said. “Those are the ones that are going to have to find another job. They’ve got families.”

Roberts may be one of those worse off. At 54, and with his youngest child starting college, he needs work.

“This is a hard time to be dumping middle-aged guys into the job market,” said Roberts, of North Bend, who spent all of last Thursday looking for work. “It’s kind of hard to find a job when you have been logging your whole life and you’re 54.”

McNeely isn’t bitter or angry, just reflective. To him, the purchase is a symbol of the uneasy tug-of-war between logging companies and conservation efforts. For years the logging industry had the most clout, but the balance has shifted, and now he feels it has gone too far the other way.

“I think there is too much push on that end. It’s like a lot of things where it’s bad one way so they reverse it,” he said. “This is the trend the other way now.”

Roberts is skeptical about how much logging there is left to do in the Valley, adding that it’s painful to watch a once-thriving industry fade away.

“This Valley has changed a lot since I first started working for Weyerhaeuser,” he said. “It used to be a logging town. It was a common thread that is now totally gone. It’s kind of sad, I guess.”

You can reach Ben Cape at (425) 888-2311, or e-mail him at ben.cape@

valleyrecord.com.