International Paper to cut 40 positions It's not known how many of 28 salaried Industrial Papers Business division jobs will be lost at the De Pere plant By Christopher Clough News-Chronicle International Paper announced Monday it is cutting 40 salaried positions from its Industrial Papers Business division, which will affect jobs at its plant in De Pere and elsewhere. The division is headquartered in Kaukauna and consists of its Converted Products, Specialty Papers and Release Products subdivisions. It produces lightweight papers, densified papers and paper composite structures. It employs about 1,500 people in De Pere; Kaukauna; Menasha; Lancaster, Ohio; and the Netherlands. The job losses are expected to come from all five sites. Rick Counihan, human resources manager for the De Pere plant, said his location has 28 salaried workers for Industrial Papers, out of 238 total employees in the plant. He said it's not known yet how many positions will be reduced at each plant, nor the timetable for the layoffs. Because the positions are salaried, he said union-related issues should not come into play. "At this time, we don't have specifics on the number of persons (to be laid off) at each location," Counihan said. "The first part of the process is looking for individuals who may want to volunteer for a severance package. "We will try to determine what the restructuring will look like by the end of May, and then implement that by the end of June, maybe into early July. It may be a situation where it's partially implemented by the end of June and complete the rest of the restructuring in late summer of early fall." He said he thought the work reductions were driven mostly by the economy, not because of internal changes or a possible corporate sale or spinoff. "I haven't heard anything like that," Counihan said. "We were up for divestiture last year, but that was taken off the table. "Some of this is in response to the economy. We're seeing some restructuring going on throughout the industry. It truly gets to just helping us remain cost competitive with foreign competition."