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February 25, 2010 Bangorbiz

Brewer preps for Cianbro transition

By Carol Coultas

The city of Brewer and the state's manufacturing industry are reacting to the expected news that Cianbro will drastically cut its nearly 500-person work force at its Eastern Manufacturing Facility in Brewer.

Cianbro officials have for weeks been gradually downsizing while warning that more layoffs were to come. Yesterday, the company announced the facility's work on a major oil refinery contract would wrap up by April 27, and by June only 100 people would be left at the facility, with the rest likely moved to other positions within the corporation.

"Our primary focus is finding a job for them, and we're pretty confident we can find places for them to go," says Joseph Cote, vice president and general manager of Cianbro Constructors, the company's Brewer division.

Many will find work with the company's construction division, Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp., where many Eastern Manufacturing employees originated, Cote says. That work includes paper mill maintenance across the state and a $150 million contract for bridge work in southern New England. The company has work all along the Atlantic seaboard to Maryland, and is also bidding on projects in the Augusta area and Down East, Cote says. An alliance with STARCON, an Illinois construction firm, could find refinery work for employees in other parts of the country, according to a company release.

Though some workers may have a temporary layoff of a couple weeks, the company will pay their benefits during that time. "A lot of them are construction workers and they're used to the cyclical nature of the business," he says.

The company is working to secure another contract to build modules at the Brewer facility, and is in talks with oil refineries and "other projects in related industries" that Cote wouldn't disclose. But inking another deal for a major project, like the $7 billion Port Arthur Refinery in Texas Cianbro is currently working on, could take months or even a year or more, Cote says.

In the meantime, "The Bangor/Brewer area will be hit really hard this summer," says Lisa Martin, executive director of the Manufacturers Association of Maine -- especially if the expected layoffs at Cianbro happen in tandem with the 127 layoffs expected when ZF Lemforder closes its Brewer auto parts manufacturing facility, planned sometime this year.

She says manufacturers around the state are doing all they can to hang on to employees and find work, even short-term projects, to tide them over until the economy revives. "I was talking to four or five companies this morning, and a couple said they had a contract that would keep people on the payroll for a few months. It's very much a paycheck-to-paycheck mentality."

She says she's hopeful that there will be a way to keep Cianbro's skilled workers in state and employed as other emerging industries, such as alternative energy and aerospace, begin to grow. But she acknowledges that with the entire global manufacturing sector in the doldrums, no one knows when that turnaround will happen.

As a bright spot, she says she knows of several manufactures who are hiring to fulfill projects, even while curtailing pay and benefits to keep existing workers employed. "People are doing all they can to avoid layoffs."

She says the association maintains a resume distribution service; if laid-off Cianbro workers want to email resumes, the association will share them among members.

While news of layoffs, even temporary, is never welcome, both Cianbro and the city of Brewer have been preparing for it. "It's not a big surprise to the city," says Brewer Economic Development Director D'arcy Main-Boyington. "The way they're operating on that site, the contracts are so enormous, that with one coming to an end, we knew the likelihood of another one falling directly on its heels in this seamless transition was probably not going to happen."

She says the city is optimistic that it will secure more work for the Brewer facility. "The likelihood that another [contract] will come along in the not too distant future is huge," she says. "But it's a matter of how long it will take."

Until then, Brewer officials can't do much but watch and wait. "We have an excellent relationship with them and are actively ready and standing by help them with a client" should the company need it, she says.

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