THE toughest question facing Kimberly-Clark workers in Millicent is will they have a job come May?
Brothers Jeremy and Craig Hales, who work as technicians for the paper products manufacturer, both have young families and a mortgage, and both are worried they may be among the 170 workers to be made redundant because they have only been employed with the company for a few years.
"I've only been there four years so there's a fair possibility I'm going to end up losing my job there which means I may end up losing my house,'' said Craig, 29, who said that with no other trade skills he may have to consider leaving the town he had known all his life to find work.
"Jeremy's been there longer (seven years) so it's probably not as hard up for him but you never know, there's a lot of jobs going so it could affect both of us. We don't know."
On Tuesday, the company announced it would shut two tissue machines in May and shed 170 jobs from its 540-strong workforce, citing the rising dollar and competition from "dumped product'' from overseas.
Its adjacent Tantanoola Pulp Mill, which employs 65 people will also close if a buyer cannot be found.
Another worker, who did not want to be named, said many workers blamed the Federal Government for allowing cheap imports.
Jeremy Hale said workers had seen the writing on the wall when the company started scaling back shifts, but workers had still been shocked by the size of the job cut.
"The uncertainty is the worst bit," the-30-year-old, whose wife is expecting their third child, said.
"What happens if I get put off? Where are you going to find another job without a trade?''
Mayor Peter Gandolfi said he was seeking a meeting with Premier Mike Rann next week to discuss building a new value-added industry in the area, and urged workers not to give up on Millicent.
"What we've got to do is look at opportunities,'' he said.
"If we dwell on what has been announced, it won't benefit the community and it could exacerbate the problem.''
He said the job losses would have a multiplier affect on the town's other businesses and contractors.
"For every job lost out there, we will see a job lost somewhere else,'' Mr Gandolfi said.
"Retraining programs are fine but we want to find jobs for them once they've been trained.''
The CFMEU will meet with the company tomorrow to discuss the job losses. Voluntary redundancies will be offered first.
Trevor Sinclair, a Kimberly-Clark employee and the president of union's pulp and paper division, Millicent sub-branch, said there was absolute silence in the company auditorium when the announcement was made.
"It's massive for us ... it was a shock. There were a lot of upset people,'' he said.
"People knew something had to happen,'' he said, because machines had been regularly shut down last year due to a lack of demand but ``people were living in hope that orders would pick up''.