Residents of a Maine town greeted workers at a shuttering paper mill with cheers and applause as the employees were leaving their final shifts at the facility.
Maine Public Broadcast Network reports that hundreds of people gathered outside the Verso Paper mill in Bucksport on Wednesday afternoon as workers were leaving their shifts. Verso announced the mill's pending closure in October. The closure of the facility will put more than 500 people out of work.
The mill stopped production this month and has said it will pay workers through the end of the year before officially laying them off. The mill's owners have said the closure is necessary because of high energy costs and decreasing demand for products made at the facility.
