Repairs expected to take six months

International Paper will restart operations at its Vicksburg mill on Mississippi 3 after repairs are made to a recovery boiler that exploded on May 3, killing a Vicksburg man and injuring 17 others.

Company executives said Wednesday, after meeting with employees and union representatives, that repairs might be complete in six months.

“We’ve got an excellent team of people here who are facing difficult circumstances,” mill manager Tom Macher said in a statement.

The explosion during scheduled maintenance closed the 41-year-old plant, laying off all of the 306 IP employees except a 12-person rotation of hazard mitigation personnel.

Employees will not lose insurance benefits while laid off, IP executives told a group of about 200 workers gathered for a closed-door meeting Wednesday at the mill. Later, executives and labor representatives expressed confidence in the mill’s short-term future in Vicksburg.

In addition to insurance coverage, tenured workers out of a job for six weeks or more will be eligible for severance pay while retaining seniority and recall preference for when operations are restarted.

IP has encouraged workers to take paid vacation time if available to keep up income. Others have filed for unemployment benefits which provide a maximum of $210 per week.

Wages will not change from pre-accident levels for workers responding to callbacks in six months, IP spokesman Amy Sawyer said.

The unified front presented by labor and management represented something “unheard of” in modern-day workplace relations, United Steelworkers Local 618 executive vice president Jimmy Melton said.

“Normally, industries in this situation would just pack up and go overseas,” Melton said.

About 80 percent of IP’s workforce are union members.

Most questions posed to company officials have centered on the boiler itself and the short-term future of the plant. “It’s things like, ‘Are we going to have a job?,'” USW Local 618 secretary Tom Flanagan said. “But, no one imagined we’d come this far along.”

Work to repair the boiler will be contracted out, company officials said. Macher told union representatives Wednesday the company would work with them to find crews for the short and long terms.

Robert and Kenneth Townsend, two contract maintenance workers with M-Co., remained in critical condition at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., a hospital spokesman said Wednesday. They were among five people taken to the burn center; one has been released.

Others treated at the Georgia facility, as well as the injured workers, have not been identified by the company. They were not employed by IP, but by contract firms performing the maintenance. Others with less severe burns were treated and released from River Region Medical Center.

A suit was filed against the company and several others last week in Warren County Circuit Court on behalf of Glenn Rankin, 52. It alleges negligence on the part of company officials and those involved in the manufacture, distribution, installation, maintenance, repair or sale of the boiler that exploded.

Inspectors with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are looking into possible causes, with results expected in six months. In the company’s statement, Macher expressed appreciation to OSHA for assisting in the company’s response to the accident, as well as that from employees and the community.

Killed was Marcus Christopher Broome, 28, pronounced dead at the scene. All 400 workers at the mill at the time of the explosion were accounted for, IP officials have said.

“We all continue to hope and pray for the recovery of those who were hurt in the accident on May 3, particularly those who are still hospitalized as well as the family of Mr. Broome,” Macher said.

Ronnie Gullett, an electrical instrumentation specialist at the mill, predicted the mill could be going in less than six months.

“IP has gone out an a limb for us to keep (its employees) together as a family.” Gullett said.

Through company filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, cost calculations on the explosion’s impact will take time. Executives have said liability insurance deductibles and retention amounts total about $20 million.

In 2006 and 2007, the Memphis-based company was issued Katrina-inspired Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds totaling $50 million for improvements to its physical plant, including the boilers.

About 555,000 tons of linerboard used in corrugated packaging are produced annually at the Vicksburg Mill, which began operation in 1967.