Trade AdjustmentAssistance

for your laid-off workers

Logging contractors forced to permanently lay off employees due to loss of business with any one of 14 companies with facilities in Maine that have been certified for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) through the U.S. Department of Labor are advised those employees may now qualify for unemployment and retraining dollars through those certifications.

This is a way for you to help workers that have or will be permanently laid off due to market conditions out of your control. The program offers assistance and guidance for workers who have suffered a layoff and it can also soften the financial blow to your employees as a result of a layoff.

TAA provides a path for employment growth and opportunity to trade-affected workers with opportunities to obtain the skills, resources, and support they need to become reemployed.

In the case of Maine loggers who are permanently laid off, if the case can be made that the losses were due to foreign trade at one of the 14 companies, individual helped make automatic fire suppression systems more affordable.

TST is guided by Rick Quagliaroli, owner of Swamp Fox Agency, Inc., an established South Carolina-based business that interfaces with forest industry interests in three states. According to him, many loggers and log truckers now do a commendable job but the industry’s trucking segment overall is performing poorly, resulting in increasing mishaps and multiple forms of costly, disruptive, traumatic fallout. This is forcing some truckers to the side of the road and causing some insurance providers to abandon the market.

“TEAM Safe Trucking’s goal is to set a high standard for driver training and continuing education, and we’ll focus the training program specifically on hauling logs and chips. The program will be designed to help make the industry’s log and chip trucking segment safer and more efficient, and every party that has an interest in trucking will need to ‘buy in’ for it to be truly successful. It will take some time. For the good of the industry as a whole, we’re asking for support up and down the line.” workers in the group may apply for TAA benefits and services.

For more information, email or call Quagliaroli: rick@swampfoxagencyinc.net, 843-761-3999; or Jimmie Locklear: jlocklear@forestrymutual.com, 910-733-3300.

Each laid off worker must individually apply for services and benefits through their local Maine Career Center. TAA case managers will issue a determination of individual worker eligibility for benefits. We encourage you to assist your workers in taking advantage of this opportunity if you have been forced to lay off employees permanently as a result of loss of business with one or more of the 14 companies below:

Chester Forest Products, LLC

Eastland Shoe Corporation

Expera Old Town, LLC

Gardner Chipmills Millinocket, LLC

Great Northern Paper Maine Holding, LLC

Kelly-Smith Printing & Paper

Lincoln Paper & Tissue, LLC

Madison Paper Industries

Red Shield Acquisition

S&S Transportation, Inc.

Silvex Inc.

Verso Corporation

Verso Paper Corporation

Walter Kidde Portable Equipment, Inc.