[06/17/03] Two more weeks have been added to a planned week off the job for some employees of the Anderson-Tully Co. flooring mill.

The company, one of Vicksburg’s largest employers with 500 workers in all of its divisions, announced in May and in March it planned to lay off workers. The March layoff affected about 57 people at the plant that makes Capella, the company’s line of engineered wood flooring, and the May layoff affected 35 at the flooring mill.

Both times, company officials said the layoffs were due to a temporary reduction in force due to a soft market. Also, a major customer for the veneer made at the mill had delayed its orders.

“We told our (flooring mill) employees two months ago we would shut down the week of July 4,” said Mike Myrick, human resources manager for ATCO. He said the long warning time was so employees who had not taken their vacations could schedule them for the week the plant would be shut down and they would not miss a paycheck.

Myrick said they told flooring division workers Monday the mill will be shut down for an additional two weeks, starting today.

For the week of July 4, all of the 138 employees of the division will be off. During the two weeks leading to the holiday week, about 45 more employees will be off.

Everyone will be back to work July 7, he said.

“If we were to remain open, we would just build up more inventory,” Myrick said.

The shutdown will not affect the rest of the ATCO operation, Myrick said. Those workers will be off only July 4.

Anderson-Tully is a major owner of hardwood timberland in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. It has its headquarters in Memphis and its mills in Vicksburg.