The Layoff Club

Laid off from Domtar.

Domtar has more than once announced a mill shutdown since 2023 as an indefinite idling, not a permanent closure. What followed has differed by site. An Ontario mill was later sold, and a British Columbia mill drew a provincial deal that depended on a union vote.

What we know about Domtar severance and layoffs

  • 17 of 22 tracker filings came from Resolute and the companies before it
  • About 285 employees cut in the May 2026 Coosa Pines, Alabama, idling
  • About 350 employees affected by the permanent Crofton, British Columbia, closure
  • About 450 employees affected by the 2023 Espanola, Ontario, idling
  • 176 workers on Mississippi's 2025 notice for the Grenada newsprint mill

The most recent Domtar layoff we've found

In early October 2026, Domtar reached an agreement with British Columbia on restarting the Howe Sound pulp mill, whose indefinite idling it had announced in August, MET Magazine reported, on condition that Unifor Local 1119 members ratified a new collective agreement.

What Domtar layoffs have meant for employees

If your badge or your last pay stub says Resolute, this is your employer's record too. Domtar took Resolute on in a 2023 merger, according to the 2025 10-K, and the group behind both companies adopted the Domtar name the next year, Northern Ontario Business reported. Most of this company's US filings came from Resolute or the companies before it, Abitibi and Bowater among them, our WARN tracker shows, so the paper trail for a mill you've worked at for years may run under a name other than Domtar's.

The word indefinite has covered very different outcomes at Domtar. Domtar later sold the idled Espanola mill, as the third-quarter 2026 10-Q records. Howe Sound's drew a restart agreement by October, with energy rebates and adjusted pricing in it, according to Unifor's regional director in MET Magazine. State records use different labels too. Mississippi's WARN report logged Grenada as a layoff, while Alabama's list marked Coosa Pines as a closure. If your mill is idled and you're given separation papers, it's worth holding on to whatever says laid off, terminated or idled, along with the date on it.

Contracts sit at the mill level. Domtar's annual report counted 56% of its employees under collective bargaining agreements and said those agreements are generally negotiated facility by facility. The terms on record follow that shape. Kingsport's 2020 recall plan came out of talks with the union there, according to the company statement WCYB published, and Howe Sound's restart turned on Local 1119's own contract vote. Terms from one local may not carry over to another. If a union represents you, keeping your own copy of the current contract, including any recall language, is a small step you can take well ahead of any announcement.

Domtar's filings do separate severance and termination costs from equipment and inventory write-offs, so you can see the part of a shutdown's estimated cost tied to staff. The figures in the Crofton filing and the Espanola filing are site totals that mix pay with benefits and other termination costs, so an average worked out from them wouldn't establish what any individual received. The help on record is general as well. At Coosa Pines, Domtar spoke of career transition resources and benefits guidance, and area chambers said they were working on job opportunities, training and career services, ABC 33/40 reported.

Some US sites have been through this more than once. Coosa Pines shows up under Bowater in 2001, AbitibiBowater in 2009 and 2011, and Resolute in 2026, and Augusta, Georgia, has layoff dates in 2016 and 2020. Calhoun's notices grew from 2013 to 2017 to 2021, and the last one still left tissue work at the site, Resolute's release said. Those rows don't predict anything about a particular mill, but at Coosa Pines and Calhoun a smaller cut wasn't the last one. The reasons on record point to the market, from newsprint conditions at Grenada to pulp prices and fiber at Howe Sound.

US filings understate these cuts. The 10-K puts 54% of employees in Canada, and Crofton, Espanola and Howe Sound each affected more people than Coosa Pines did. The same filing said Domtar may idle other underperforming mills and was reviewing support function costs with the aim of right sizing the organization ahead of asset sales. That language describes options, and it names no mill. If your job does end, Alabama unemployment benefits, Tennessee's and Mississippi's set out what a claim takes in three of the states behind these notices.

A sourced history of Domtar layoffs

  • August 2026, Howe Sound and Bayview indefinite idling

    Domtar said idling the Port Mellon, British Columbia, pulp mill and its chipping facility would affect about 400 employees, citing weak demand from Asia, poor pulp prices and less affordable fiber, MET Magazine reported.

  • March 2026, Coosa Pines and Talladega chip mill idling

    Domtar counted 285 employees at the fluff pulp mill and chip mill, ABC 33/40 reported, and its third-quarter 2026 10-Q confirms the May idling. Alabama's list, carried in our WARN tracker, shows 255 at Coosa Pines and 20 at Alpine, both marked closures.

  • December 2025, Crofton pulp mill permanent closure announced

    Domtar said the closure would affect about 350 employees and estimated $19 million for severance and employee benefits within a charge of about $60 million, according to its December 2025 filing.

  • August 2025, Grenada idling, Addison and Nogales closings

    The Mississippi newsprint mill and converting plants in Addison, Illinois, and Nogales, Mexico, stopped by September, with $8 million in severance and termination costs booked, according to the third-quarter 2026 10-Q. Mississippi's WARN report lists 176 workers at Grenada.

  • September 2023, Espanola pulp and paper mill idling

    Domtar expected the Ontario idling to last more than a year and affect about 450 employees, with an estimated $31 million for severance, benefits and termination costs, its September 2023 filing said. It sold the mill in October 2025, the third-quarter 2026 10-Q records.

  • December 2021, Calhoun pulp and paper idling under Resolute

    Resolute's December 2021 release said the Tennessee decision would directly affect 350 hourly and salaried positions at a site employing 545, with tissue making and the distribution center continuing.

  • August 2020, Kingsport, Port Huron and Ashdown paper closures

    Domtar announced a workforce reduction of about 750 across those mills and its Ridgefields, Tennessee, converting center, its 2021 10-Q shows. Its statement to WCYB counted about 310 permanent layoffs at Kingsport during the mill's conversion.

What to do if you're laid off from Domtar

Domtar layoff and severance questions

What severance has Domtar given laid-off employees?

Nothing on record gives a per-person amount or formula for any round. Domtar's filings report these costs as a company total for each action, such as the $10 million in severance and termination costs its third-quarter 2026 10-Q shows for Coosa Pines through September 2026, and the estimates in its Crofton filing and Espanola filing work the same way. Those totals can't establish an individual payment.

Is the Coosa Pines mill closed for good?

Domtar calls it an indefinite idling, expected to last more than a year, though the same footnote in its 2025 10-K refers to it as a closure. Alabama's list, reflected in our WARN tracker, marks both the Coosa Pines and Alpine lines as closures.

Is Resolute Forest Products part of Domtar?

Yes. A merger completed on March 1, 2023 left Resolute a subsidiary of Domtar, the 2025 10-K says, and the wider Paper Excellence Group took the Domtar name in October 2024, Northern Ontario Business reported. Resolute's name still appears on new notices, including Alabama's two lines from March 2026 in our WARN tracker.

How many WARN notices has Domtar filed?

Our WARN tracker holds 22 rows all time, with 4 under Domtar names, 10 under Resolute, 5 under Abitibi names and one each under Bowater, Catalyst and Donohue Industries. The largest is Abitibi's 580-job Lufkin, Texas, notice of December 2003. Three rows from 2025 or later cover 451 jobs in Alabama and Mississippi, and two older rows count the same Kingsport workforce, so an all-time jobs total would overstate the record.

Will laid-off Domtar workers be recalled?

The recall statement on record covers one mill. In 2020 Domtar said it intended to recall eligible Kingsport employees once the converted mill was ready, under a process negotiated with the union, and it expected that mill to employ about 150 people, WCYB reported. If a union represents you, your local's agreement could hold its own recall language, since the 2025 10-K describes agreements as generally negotiated on a facility-by-facility basis.