4 months ago
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The courtroom was packed. And in the hallway, standing room only as lumber contractors and producers met to discuss their problems.
It's no secret the lumber industry is hurting. In Warren the Bradley Hardwood plant has been closed for more than a year.
And this month the Georgia Pacific plywood plant in Fordyce shut down, putting 360 employees and another 150 or so loggers out of work.
"Everything that they've been working on that's been passed down through generations, went bankrupt and they lose everything they've got, "Otto Aair and his brother Ronnie own a trucking company that brings timber to the mills.
He says the decrease in demand, coupled with the recent bad weather has left his trucks sitting idle far too long to make ends meet.
Adair says, "Me and my wife sat down last night and went back over records, and of my four trucks, since March, we have actually worked 6 weeks, six full weeks. Everything else has been scattered out, one or two days here, three...or none."
The lumber industry workers want Washington to come through for the lumber industry just like they did for Wall Street and the auto industry, with a little help to get through this tough economy.
Steve Richards is the President of the Arkansas Timber Producers Association, "Whether it be disaster money, disaster aid, or stimulus, or any kind of help that we can possibly get."
Trucker Ronnie Adair says, "With the timber industry the way it's been this year, you get up and you go to work and you come home, and you know that with what you just made that day that it didn't do enough."
One small piece of good news, officials at the Georgia Pacific plant in Fordyce hope to re-hire workers and start production again in six months.
They hope to see a rise in residential construction during that time.
