By Bill Rautenstrauch

WesCom News Service

LA GRANDE – The pending change in ownership at Boise Cascade poses no threat to local jobs, the corporation’s Northeast Oregon manager said Monday.

”Hourly employees will be automatically rehired by the new owners, and the management team will be substantially rehired,” Bruce Cartmel told The Observer. ”I’m incredibly heartened by this deal. It’s the best possible outcome for employees and local communities.”

Boise Cascade had announced early this year that it was considering selling its wood-products-related assets.

On Monday the company announced it will soon close a $3.7 billion deal with Boise Cascade LLC, a new company formed by the Chicago investment firm Madison Dearborn Partners.

Boise’s forest products, paper and timberland assets change hands in the deal, which is expected to be complete by November.

The buyers will keep the Boise Cascade name. Boise Cascade, meanwhile, will change its name to OfficeMax, acquiring the name of the Cleveland-based office products seller it bought last year for $1.2 billion.

Boise Cascade employs about 800 people in its Northeast Oregon region. Local holdings include a sawmill in La Grande, a particleboard plant near Island City and a plywood plant and stud mill in Elgin, as well as timberlands.

Cartmel said it is likely all the local facilities will remain operational after the transition is complete.

”We don’t expect wholesale change. You don’t buy an asset just to shut it down,” he said.

Recently, union locals throughout the region completed labor negotiations and inked a new contract with Boise.

Mike Moran, president of Local 2851, which represents some 300 workers at the La Grande mill, said the settlement ratified Friday was satisfactory.

”We believe it will keep us funded where we need to be,” Moran said.

He noted that the contract has a clause that protects employees from losing their jobs because of an ownership change.

”For union employees, we have a successorship clause and we don’t anticipate any changes in the way we work,” he said.

Moran said the new four-year deal includes a signing bonus, wage increases for three years after the first year, contributions to the health care package and retirement benefits for each year of the contract.

Cartmel Monday had words of praise for corporate leadership, saying it looked long and hard for the deal that would benefit the most people.

”I’d give praise to the leadership in Boise,” he said. ”They worked hard to get a deal that protects employees and company structure. There were other proposals that might not have worked out so well for employees.”

The new company also will acquire the corporate headquarters in Boise, Idaho.