Tester Helps Secure Job Training Resources for Former Weyerhaeuser Employees

(U.S. Senate)-Senator Jon Tester today announced that employees who were laid off by Weyerhaeuser earlier this year are now eligible to apply for critical job retraining resources known as Trade Adjustment Assistance.

“Every Montanan who was laid off by Weyerhaeuser deserves an opportunity to land a new good-paying job at home in the Flathead Valley,” said Tester. “I’m pleased to have worked with folks on the ground to secure this important job training resource for workers who were unfairly laid off. I’ll continue working with folks in Columbia Falls and the surrounding communities to ensure they have a renewed shot at success.”

Tester’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Act was signed into law last year to help assist manufacturing, agriculture, timber, and service employees retrain for new jobs if their job is outsourced or if their employers go out of business due to trade.

Earlier this year during a roundtable in Columbia Falls, Tester called on the Montana Department of Labor to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance on behalf of the over 100 employees who were terminated.

Tester’s bill also provides funding which community colleges and other career training programs can use to retrain workers in skilled work fields and provides health care tax credits to help eligible unemployed workers afford health insurance.

Former Weyerhaeuser employees are now eligible to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance through the Kalispell Job Service.