Two more workers positive at USG

After closing the USG plant in Cloquet for a deep cleaning following three employee-confirmed cases of COVID-19 there, USG spokesperson Kaitlyn Henderson said the company has two additional confirmed cases here.

"In both cases, the employees had already been away from the plant for several days," she said.

In each case, operations at the plant were temporarily suspended so it could be thoroughly cleaned.

"We restarted operations after the cleaning and are currently operating like normal," Henderson told the Pine Knot News on Monday, May 18.

Meanwhile, there was a period of time that both USG and the Cloquet Sappi mill were not operating, which meant no pillars of smoke and steam were bracketing the downtown for several days.

Sappi North America spokesperson Olga Karagiannis declined to answer Pine Knot News questions about whether the Cloquet mill has had any employees test positive for COVID-19 or has plans for reopening the mill at full capacity. In late April, Karagiannis said, because of market conditions, the Cloquet mill was one of three in North America "taking periodic market curtailment on some of its operations ... to balance our product supply with demand."

"As part of this process, employees associated with the curtailed machines are being temporarily laid off consistent with the process defined in their collective bargaining agreements," she said, adding that the temporary layoffs will be on a rotational basis, impacting employees for between one and two weeks at a time.

After closing the USG plant in Cloquet for a deep cleaning following three employee-confirmed cases of COVID-19 there, USG spokesperson Kaitlyn Henderson said the company has two additional confirmed cases here.

"In both cases, the employees had already been away from the plant for several days," she said.

In each case, operations at the plant were temporarily suspended so it could be thoroughly cleaned.

"We restarted operations after the cleaning and are currently operating like normal," Henderson told the Pine Knot News on Monday, May 18.

Meanwhile, there was a period of time that both USG and the Cloquet Sappi mill were not operating, which meant no pillars of smoke and steam were bracketing the downtown for several days.

Sappi North America spokesperson Olga Karagiannis declined to answer Pine Knot News questions about whether the Cloquet mill has had any employees test positive for COVID-19 or has plans for reopening the mill at full capacity. In late April, Karagiannis said, because of market conditions, the Cloquet mill was one of three in North America "taking periodic market curtailment on some of its operations ... to balance our product supply with demand."

"As part of this process, employees associated with the curtailed machines are being temporarily laid off consistent with the process defined in their collective bargaining agreements," she said, adding that the temporary layoffs will be on a rotational basis, impacting employees for between one and two weeks at a time.