Pros
Pay is good. Lots of overtime. Don't have to work very hard unless something breaks down. The people I worked with were great, we often bbq'd on night shifts or had potluck dinners. Shift schedule was great, only worked 6-8 months out of the year with all the time off and still made $86,000 a year. Being home every night to see the wife and kids was a definite plus.
Kontras
Supervisors and management did not listen to their operators. Everything that broke down was given band aids to save production. No apprenticeships, no way to better yourself or advance. This environment kills a person's work ethic. No reason to work hard, you get paid the same as the lazy ones. I worked 2, almost 3, years doing the same back and forth drive on a forklift, very monotonous. Human Resources specifically instructed their people in management not to become friends with us workers on the floor, they were told the workers were out to get them. Management squeezed every drop of production out of the mill until they shut it down and layed-off all of the employees.