LUKE — The NewPage Corp. paper mill in Luke will be shutting down the week of July 6 due to the continuing economic downturn.

Patsy Koontz, public relations manager, confirmed the weeklong shutdown Monday and said the closure is expected to affect approximately 750 employees but is not to impact the 80 workers at the Luke Converting Facility near McCoole.

“Some maintenance work will be completed during the outage and a skeleton crew of employees will be assigned to perform security and fire watch activities,” according to a news release issued by the company.

It’s the third shutdown this year. The company mandated a partial operations halt the week of April 6, which impacted about 10 percent of the company’s work force. A month later, the plant ordered its first total shutdown for a week.

“These actions reflect the company’s determination to manage our operations effectively and efficiently in order to keep the overall business competitive and sustainable for the long term,” said Gary Curtis, mill manager.

As they did in May, workers once again will have the option of taking vacation time in lieu of unpaid time off.

A worker with more than 30 years of experience at the Luke plant told the Times-News on Monday that employees were told about the latest shutdown via the company’s internal messaging network. The day before, said Dennis Wolfe, employees were told there would be no further downtime this year.

Management “slapped us in the face,” said the Bloomington resident.

“It’s a bit of a heartache,” Wolfe said. “There’s bills that I can’t pay now.”

NewPage disputed the notion employees were told anything of the sort.

“The details regarding specific downtime at any of the NewPage mills are ever-changing based on market conditions,” according to the news release. “The only announcement made to Luke mill employees regarding future downtime was the recent announcement regarding the one-week outage in July.”

Wolfe said some employees receive a double whammy by working the late shifts on the Saturday or Sunday prior to the shutdown because it counts against an unemployment insurance claim.

Wolfe, 58, started with the company 33 years ago. He said he likes his job because “I’ve got a job and nobody bothers me.”

“I know what to do,” he said. “As long as you do your job, I never see a foreman. But the way things are any more ... it’s not like it used to be. NewPage ... they’re out there just to make money. They don’t care about the employees.”

He said evidence of that is that union workers have been working under an old contract, one that originally expired Dec. 31. Wolfe said workers “just may not put the extra effort out” without a new contract. About 75 percent of the company’s employees are represented by United Steelworkers Local No. 676.

NewPage said there have been no interruptions to production and that “we expect a successful conclusion.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.