RUMFORD – Employees who work in ground wood and long log are working at NewPage Corp., but not at their regular jobs.

Local 900 union President Matt Bean said that both departments were shut down as of Monday. The two departments employ about 45 people.

He is uncertain about what jobs the workers will be assigned, but so far, the mill has not announced any layoffs, and he is not aware of any layoffs. He said, too, that the No. 9 machine, which is the pulp dryer, has been down for about two weeks.

He said he is waiting to hear what the next steps will be for the mill’s employees.

“Other meetings (with management) will happen, but none are scheduled yet. This could be minute to minute,” he said, adding that he did not want to speculate about anything.

Bean also confirmed that 24-hour-a-day nursing coverage has been eliminated. Now, nursing staff, which are contracted by the mill, will be on duty from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Bean is unsure about the medical coverage on weekends and the number of people affected by the change because the union does not represent nurses.

“I feel particularly uncomfortable about not having 24-hour coverage,” he said. “This is a big change.”

He said mill employees are anxious about their employment at the mill.

NewPage spokesman Tony Lyons said Monday that he could not confirm any of the mill changes discussed by Bean.

A NewPage central office spokeswoman in Miamisburg, Ohio, as well as Lyons, said on Friday that no specific information from individual mills would be issued.

The company issued a news release on Friday announcing plans to cut production of about 150,000 tons of paper throughout its 10 mills during the first quarter of 2009.

Miamisburg spokeswoman Shawn Hall said on Friday that the amount of downtime from each mill, as well as lay off numbers, will not be made public.

The most recent reductions follow a nearly four-week layoff of about 200 employees who work in maintenance, ground wood, long log and the pulp dryer. Employees returned to work on Jan. 2.