CHILLICOTHE, Ohio—Judy Sowers is the matriarch of a family that has seen generations work at “the Mead,” which is what the paper mill in Chillicothe is known as by many locals.

On May 8, Sowers gathered around a kitchen table with two of her daughters, her brother, and her son-in-law in a house across the street from the mill and its red-and-white striped tower.