“My parents wanted me to go to college, but I was more interested in earning some money to get a car. And then one thing led to another, and then I met my wife, got married, and there was really no turning back after that,” says mill worker Rollie Leclerc. “I really like working here. It’s a place where you can earn a decent wage and kind of live the lifestyle a middle American is supposed to. You have a house and a car and a decent living.”
“You sit at home and you watch the news and you see all these people that are 50 and older and have lost their jobs, and it doesn’t really hit home because it’s not affecting you,” Leclerc says. “But boy oh, boy, I tell you what, now I totally understand the hardship of finding employment, especially being over 50 years old. Employers do look at you differently.”
After he was laid-off for the second time, Leclerc says, “I wasn’t able to find any work at all. We got by with unemployment benefits, and we watched our pennies. But it was luck that the mill reopened, because the benefits were running out. When you’re living on that kind of money compared to what I was making at the mill, your wage cut is at about 70 percent.”
“I’m one of the fortunate ones. I didn’t have a house payment. It’s the benefits. Health care is nuts. I was paying $980 a month while I was out, with a $6,000 deductible, for myself and my wife. So getting back here and having access to health care is huge,” Leclerc says.
Leclerc’s hopeful about the future of the mill, but, “This time around, it’s been a slower start-up. When we shut down in 2000, and we started up [again], all our past customers came right back,” he says. “This time around, they’re a little reluctant. So we’re gaining their trust again. But it’s a slower process than we thought.”
Although finding work in the North Country at places like Gorham Paper and Tissue is hard, Leclerc says in some ways, having an education makes it tougher. “If you happen to have a college degree, you’re limited to where you can go as far as employment, unless you’re into the medical field, a few other areas. That’s why, when our kids go to college, it’s like a farewell. They never come back. Not because they don’t like the area. No opportunity.”
As part of our weekly “Getting By, Getting Ahead” series, StateImpact is traveling across New Hampshire, gathering personal stories from the people behind the economy. In our seventh and final installment, we talk with a longtime North Country mill worker who has been laid off, and re-hired, twice.
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The factory floor of Gorham Paper and Tissue is a miserable place on hot summer day. The massive cylinders noisily turning watery pulp into paper are incredibly hot, almost oven-like, except that the water passing through them creates a thick veil of humidity.
Deeper into the mill sits the small, cool, control shack that is Rollie Leclerc’s domain. He is a machine tender, and part of his job involves maintaining the balance between tons of hardwood, softwood, and pulp coursing through the machines. This blend is key to making high-quality paper. Underneath the safety glasses and steel-toed boots, Leclerc (pronounced “Leclaire”) is a good-natured guy with a big laugh and an easy smile. Leclerc has been on this mill floor since 1977. And he’s proud of his deep family roots in this line of work. Continue Reading →
With only one of its famed paper mills remaining, the North Country faces some big challenges in terms of economic development
Tomorrow on Morning Edition, NHPR will air the seventh and final installment of our summer series, “Getting By, Getting Ahead,” which focuses on the personal stories behind the economy. This week, we’ll tell the story of a third-generation North Country mill worker who has been laid-off and re-hired twice.
If you want to learn more about the decline of mills in the North Country, check out our Economic Snapshot. Or, for the condensed version, you can hear StateImpact reporter Amanda Loder’s discussion with NHPR’s All Things Considered host Brady Carlson below.
We also invite you to visit our special web feature, which includes an interactive map, economic perspectives from each of the people spotlighted in the series, and more information on each of New Hampshire’s regions. And when you visit, you’ll have an opportunity to share your story of life during the economic downturn and recovery.
The North Country has struggled economically since the closure of the paper mill in Berlin.
Tomorrow morning on NHPR, we’ll hear from Rollie Leclerc, a third-generation North Country mill worker who has been laid off and re-hired twice. Rollie’s story is the seventh and final part of our series “Getting By, Getting Ahead,” examining how people across New Hampshire’s regions are navigating a recovering economy.
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Over the past few years, business news coverage coming out of the North Country has taken on a patina of predictability. A factory is closing, and dozens — or even hundreds — of unskilled workers are now jobless.
Just how much economic growth would Coos County need to entice the region’s youth to return after college? This is something the Carsey Institute’s Eleanor Jaffee hopes to reveal with the 10-year long Coos Youth Study. Carsey researchers are following Coos County’s class of 2009 as they move from high school to college and beyond. The project’s most recent survey results were released this week. Continue Reading →
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