This is in response to Rep. Liz Pike’s take on the loss of 300 jobs at the Camas Georgia-Pacific paper mill, in her editorial “State’s burdensome business climate drove G-P to flee” (Dec. 7, The Columbian).
Hmm … if the mill is so important to her constituents and the Camas economy, why does it appear that she knew nothing of the layoffs and closure until they were announced? The mill isn’t in some backwater within her district; it’s in her front yard. As representative for the area and a Camas resident, I would hope that she’d been proactive in staying in contact with G-P executives and espouse the virtues of the mill’s continued operation and current employment level.
Being pro-business, as she claims, Pike should have been keenly aware of the economic realities facing the paper industry and, knowing this, reach out to these G-P execs and ask “What can we do to keep the current jobs at the mill?” Perhaps she did, but I got no such inference from her editorial, which read more like finger-pointing and blame-gaming. Is it too late or could she reach out to Georgia-Pacific seeking a change in plan or a compromise to minimize the losses in jobs and tax base?
