Laid off from International Paper.

What International Paper layoffs have meant for employees

International Paper has closed sites whole, so what ended was a mill or a plant rather than a department. Since the start of 2025 our tracker holds 18 filings covering 3,079 jobs across nine states, and the three largest are whole-mill closings at Savannah, Georgetown and Campti. Which site you worked at matters more than which program the company was running, because the site is what the notice and the severance charge attach to.

The closings are dated and named. In the February 2025 announcement the company called that round a step in streamlining its footprint to focus investment on the facilities that would best serve customers. Chief executive Andy Silvernail gave an earlier reason for Georgetown on an October 2024 earnings call, The Post and Courier reported, saying the mill and four other plants were closing because they were underutilized and the company needed to slash costs. At Georgetown the paper spoke with one millworker of 19 years and another who had 30 years in and was five years from retiring. The Riceboro mill had been part of International Paper only since January 2025, when the company bought DS Smith, the mill's owner since 2017. A company filing on the day the Savannah and Riceboro closings were announced said they reflected changes to the plan laid out in the DS Smith acquisition filings, Packaging Dive reported.

The 2025 annual report puts figures on the company's side of the closings, charging $30 million of severance against the Savannah closure, $18 million against Red River and $12 million against Riceboro, with the rest of Savannah's due to be paid in 2026. Those are site totals rather than per-person entitlements. Most of the Red River and Riceboro severance had already been paid by the end of 2025.

Whether a contract or a company policy sets your terms depends on representation. The 2025 annual report counts 20,705 hourly US employees, unions representing about 11,498 US employees and 8,622 under the United Steelworkers, across five master agreements covering US mills and converting facilities, four of them with the USW. The 2024 report put the Steelworkers figure at 9,600 and US employment at nearly 31,000 against 30,421 a year later, so the USW number fell by 978 across the two filings, subtraction we did rather than a figure either report states. Those are company-wide counts, so if you're represented, your own local is what can say which agreement covers your site. The 2025 report also says individual facilities keep local agreements for subjects the master agreements don't cover, and that a local agreement not renegotiated by its expiration renews automatically on the same terms.

The gap between the notice and the last shift is the part worth using. In Georgetown, South Carolina Public Radio reported, the weeks before the shutdown brought a job fair, workshops, a holiday toy drive and free Thanksgiving meals. Georgetown's closure also took about 200 contract workers, reported alongside the mill's payroll rather than inside the employee count. An economist at Coastal Carolina University told The Post and Courier that some families might leave to find work in neighboring areas like Charleston. If you worked at Barrington and are weighing whether to stay with the company, it's worth knowing that the Inquirer listed other International Paper sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including Bellmawr, Thorofare and Vineland. Every filing we've counted, with its date, state and job number, sits in our WARN filing tracker.

A sourced history of International Paper layoffs

• June 2026, Aurora, Elk Grove, Barrington and Richwood closings

  International Paper told Packaging Dive that 330 employees were affected, 136 in California and 133 in New Jersey, with the four sites closing by the end of the third quarter.

• February 2026, Georgetown, SC container plant closing

  Layoffs of 126 employees were to run from May 1 to December 31 under the company's notice to the state, Packaging Dive reported, with the plant closing by year's end.

• August 2025, Savannah and Riceboro mill closings

  Notices International Paper filed with Georgia, Packaging Dive reported, put 691 cuts at the Savannah containerboard mill and 101 at the Savannah packaging plant starting October 20, part of four Georgia closures affecting 1,100 hourly and salaried workers.

• February 2025, Red River mill and three other closings

  The Campti, Louisiana mill and sites in Phoenix, St. Louis and Hazleton, Pennsylvania were to close by the end of April, affecting 495 hourly and 179 salaried employees, and International Paper's February 2025 release said it would use vacancies at other locations to limit the impact.

• October 2024, Georgetown mill closing

  International Paper announced on October 31 that the Georgetown mill would close by the end of the year, eliminating nearly 700 jobs, and The Post and Courier reported that its 526 hourly and 148 salaried workers were told they'd be paid through January 1.

What to do if you're laid off from International Paper

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. International Paper's biggest hubs: Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, California. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what International Paper's hub states run: Georgia, South Carolina, Texas, California, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.