RUMFORD – Gary Hemingway was shocked when he learned Thursday morning that 50 hourly workers at NewPage Corp. would be laid off during the first quarter of 2007.

The Local 900 president said he was misled about the status of the mill.

“We were told by Richard Willett, chief operating officer of Newpage Corp., that the Rumford mill was doing great, better than any location. And that was only two or three weeks ago,” said Hemingway.

A release issued by Dayton, Ohio-based NewPage on Thursday, said that the No. 11 machine at the Rumford mill is expected to be down for three months, starting in January.

The layoffs come only a few months after the NewPage mill hired 16 hourly workers this past summer. That call for new employees was the first in years.

Mill spokesman Tony Lyons said Thursday afternoon that according to the labor contract, people hired last will be the first out when the layoffs begin.

He blamed the layoffs on paper product “volume coming in from Asia.”

“It’s a matter of supply. We must match our capacity with the market,” he said.

Employees finding themselves jobless will likely be eligible for federal trade assistance training. He said the mill is petitioning the U.S. the Department of Labor for that training.

The Rumford mill employs about 1,070. With the layoffs, the number will dip to between 1,020 and 1,030, said Lyons.

Hemingway said laying off 50 people doesn’t affect only the employees, but their 50 families as well as the community.

“It’s kind of jarring,” he said.

He said representatives from the Escanaba, Mich., and Luke, Md., mills had just completed a two-day meeting of the NewPage Council at the Rumford union hall on Nov. 1.

“Everyone was positive,” he said.

Only hourly employees will be laid off. Lyons said salaried people affected by the layoffs will be transferred into other salaried position openings. He said three or four people will be affected.

Hemingway took issue with laying off hourly workers but not salaried employees.

“Hiring for salaried employees when they make up to twice as much as hourly workers doesn’t make sense,” he said.

The No. 11 machine produces coated free sheet paper, which means no ground wood is used, said Lyons.

The hourly employees will be laid off over the three-month first quarter. Some reshuffling of jobs will be needed so that more senior employees keep their jobs.

Lyons said all of NewPage’s mills have been doing well, but management had to look ahead.

Besides the 50 employees at the Rumford mill, 130 jobs will be cut from a paper machine in the Maryland mill. That machine’s shut down is expected to be permanent.

“I feel like we’ve been flipped over,” said Hemingway. “It’s like telling your kid he’s got all As, then he flunks out.”