About 80 workers from Duluth who lost their jobs when the Georgia Pacific hardboard plant closed this fall will be eligible for retraining and employment assistance through a state grant.
Duluth officials said today that they're getting a $285,000 state grant from DEED's State Workforce Development Fund.
The closing caught Duluth officials by surprise; they had said that company officials assured them previously that the plant, which made a thin hardboard product called Superwood used in the auto industry, would stay open.
About 140 workers lost their jobs; the state grant will help 80 who are "experienced but too young to retire and/or need additional training or assistance in order to return to the labor workforce," officials said.
