Dive Brief:
- Teamsters members began striking Monday at a Smurfit Westrock corrugated converting plant in Wakefield, Massachusetts, the day they say their contract expired. Teamsters say Smurfit Westrock should “return to the bargaining table” and “get serious about negotiating,” according to a news release.
- Smurfit Westrock was notified on Feb. 21 that Teamsters would terminate the two parties’ labor agreement as of March 23, a company spokesperson told Packaging Dive on Tuesday evening. “Smurfit Westrock negotiated in good faith, and continues to be open to negotiating in good faith,” the spokesperson said. Teamsters did not respond to a request for comment.
- Smurfit Westrock filed a notice with the state, dated March 18, disclosing that it would close the Wakefield facility and lay off a total of 91 employees during a two-week period starting May 18. Smurfit Westrock is closing this facility as part of its ongoing optimization plan, the spokesperson said.
Dive Insight:
The 60 members of the Teamsters Local 3 that are on strike in Wakefield are “demanding fair wages, affordable health care, and no cuts to retirement contributions,” according to the Teamsters news release.
Some of the employees at the Wakefield facility are covered by a different union, the National Conference of Firemen & Oilers 32BJ SEIU Local 3, according to the worker adjustment and retraining notification Smurfit Westrock filed with the state of Massachusetts. Members of this union are not on strike with the Teamsters, the Smurfit Westrock spoksperson confirmed.
Teamsters has announced at least one new contract with a packaging company, in addition to labor action against packaging companies, in recent months. This year it agreed to a contract with Metal Container Corp., a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev that manufactures cans.
Teamsters members decided to strike in June 2025 at a Mauser Packaging Solutions subsidiary in Chicago. After roughly four months of workers striking, Mauser announced it would close that facility.
Companies typically do not permanently close facilities where employees are already striking, and in some cases it’s illegal. However, it’s difficult for a union to prove closures are due to a strike rather than business conditions, and laws tend to favor employers, the Chicago Tribune reported last year during the Mauser situation.
Smurfit Westrock has frequently cited its ongoing footprint optimization during closure announcements over the last couple years, and company executives have repeatedly discussed the optimization during earnings calls. The strategy has involved removing aging or underperforming assets from the network and shifting certain production capacity to other facilities. That’s the case with the Wakefield plant, the spokesperson said, and capacity will move to other locations within the company’s network.
Smurfit Westrock has closed numerous facilities since Ireland-based Smurfit Kappa acquired Atlanta-based WestRock in 2024. It had reduced companywide headcount by more than 4,500 as of October 2025, CEO Tony Smurfit said during an an earnings call at that time. Less than four months later, the tally rose to more than 4,600 people just in North America.
The company has recently announced additional closures. In February, it disclosed plans to shut down a machine at a Quebec paper mill, as well as an extrusion facility in Quebec; both closures were slated for this month and affected approximately 90 employees. In November, the company announced plans to close a Georgia food service packaging plant and lay off 55 workers. Two weeks prior, it detailed the intention to close a corrugated sheet and box facility in California, affecting 141 employees.
