Swap between Georgia-Pacific and Louisiana-Pacific

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation&#39;s plywood and fiberboard manufacturing plants in the northern Louisiana town of Urania will close in September, costing 355 people their jobs at least temporarily. <br> <br> The company made the announcement Tuesday. <br> <br> The LaSalle Parish facility is one of five plants being swapped by Louisiana-Pacific to Georgia-Pacific Corporation for Georgia-Pacific&#39;s strand board mill in Woodland, Maine. <br> <br> Spokesman David Dugan said part of the deal requires Portland, Oregon-based Louisiana-Pacific to idle the Urania plant before Georgia-Pacific takes over in September. <br> <br> The trade also includes an idle plywood plant in Bon Weir, Texas, a plywood plant employing 280 people in Logansport, Louisiana, and a third plywood plant operating in Cleveland, Texas, with 435 workers. Dugan said those plants are not affected by terms of the trade. <br> <br> A spokeswoman for Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific, Robin Keegan, said it has no immediate plans to reopen the plants. <br> <br> Keegan said, ``The three idle plants will remain in that condition so they can be restarted when market conditions allow.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Dugan said about 255 work in the Urania plywood plant, while another 100 work in the fiberboard plant. <br> <br> In May, Louisiana-Pacific said it would cut 4,400 jobs from its 9,700-member work force and sell its plywood, industrial panels and lumber businesses. The company said it wanted to focus on more profitable businesses and expected to net more than $600 million from the plan.