A show of good faith

ST. REGIS – In a great show of employee relations, Tricon Timber has offered a number of support options to help the 90 employees, who were recently laid off, get protections while they are unemployed.

Last week, the company brought in representatives from Missoula’s Unemployment Insurance Division offices to help the former employees get everything filled out to sign up for unemployment benefits. For former employees without reliable Internet access, Tricon has opened their doors for people to come to their offices to file weekly unemployment claims.

The participants also received assistance in getting set up on a sliding fee scale for various types of insurance and medical coverage. The company is also arranging grants so people can get needed medical prescriptions.

The process began on Monday, September 28. According to Stacy Neill, one of the people helping with the benefit offer, this assistance will continue for as long as the participants are unemployed.

She also noted the company is family-owned and cares deeply about their staff; it has been said the Tricon staff is like a family in itself. As a result, the company is doing what they can to help people during a difficult time.

“We really want to help out our employees and keep our door open,” Neill said.

Tricon Timber recently had to conduct massive lay offs due to the market situation surrounding a soft wood trade agreement with Canada, which is set to expire on October 13. According to market experts, this could flood the lumber market with cheaper lumber from Canada. Officials at the company said this left them with uncertain market conditions, leading to the lay offs. While the lay offs were declared a temporary situation, it is estimated the conditions could last up to a year.

So far, though, they have been somewhat successful in keeping the lay offs temporary. Neill noted they had already brought four of the employees back to work for them.

“We are trying to bring people back as soon as we can,” she said.