An hour and a half after finding out they may not have jobs in 60 days, some Weyerhaeuser Co. employees gathered in shock inside the North Valley Eagles Aerie bar Wednesday afternoon.

The bar is just across U.S. 2 from the Weyerhauser complex in Columbia Falls, where the company had told employees at 3 p.m. that the lumber and plywood mills would close later this year.

One worker described how someone handed him a severance package with shaking hands. He was surprised to see his name was already written on the envelope — “so prepared,” he said.

Another talked about how both of his uncles had retired from the mill. A man to his right said with a nod: “My dad’s been there 40 years. He’s 60. What is he going to do in Columbia Falls now?”

Company officials said that in the next few months, employees will be interviewed for around 150 spots available at other Weyerhaeuser plants.

While they were distraught over the grim workplace news, no one in the bar wanted to go on the record.

“There’s 300 of us and 150 jobs,” one man explained, suggesting the company might not look kindly on workers critical of the shutdown.

One mill worker who missed the 3 p.m. meeting walked in the side door uttering a loud “F bomb.” Some laughed as she walked to the bar while others echoed her words or hugged her.

“White Russian?” the bartender asked.

“Keep them coming,” she said.

Company officials said 230 people would be affected by the closure and estimated that 100 jobs would be eliminated.

The woman joined the circle with her White Russian in hand and raised her glass. “Those numbers are off, more than that’s going to get hurt,” she proclaimed.

She has worked at the mill for 20 years, alternating shifts with her husband to take turns watching their child.

The woman to her left said that as of Aug. 29, she would have been there 26 years. They laughed as one man said he had been there 13 years — he was young enough to be OK, they said.

At 45 years old, the man said he disagreed, saying he would have to work two jobs to match what he’s paid at Weyerhaeuser.

While some people said they were done with the company, he said he hoped to be one of the 130 employed either at the company’s Evergreen operations or the medium-density fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls.

He said the possibility of a closure had been in the back of his mind when the merger of Weyerhaeuser and Plum Creek Timber Co. took place earlier this year.

“But the mill made it through the recession, politicians and all,” the woman who worked there for 20 years said. “We hoped it would make it through this.”

The employees were told they would receive severance pay and two months of sure work.

The man who had been there 13 years said the news came less than two months after they met in the same room with a Weyerhaeuser official.

He said the visitor told them that the merger “wasn’t a buyout — he said that our jobs were safe. Now, I’m just guessing if I’ll have a job by fall.”

Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at [email protected].