Here is the first story.
They’re not moving the entire operation – yet – but this is probably the beginning of the end for one of this area’s largest employers.
I worked there for 12 years and enjoyed all but the last few months. Like other plants across the country, many people started right out of high school and have grown old building washers and dryers. It’s going to be hardest for them.
It’s a union plant and wages are relatively high for this area. New employees start at $12.00 an hour and medical insurance is free. Many central Iowa businesses that supply parts, storage, delivery, etc. will feel the impact as well.
Something like this has never happened around here before. I expect some folks will go back to school, but many will have no choice but to leave. If they end up in your area, hire them – they’re damn good workers.
This is just so sad. I wonder how many businesses have recovered from a move out of the country, or if once they’re gone, they’re gone.
I meant to pose that last sentence as a question.
If anyone’s had experience with something like this, and their town has survived, or maybe even been better for it, please share. Or if your company tried outsourcing and it didn’t work, did they come back?
If you’re older and you lost your job – especially in a non-urban area where there aren’t a lot of employers to choose from – how did you handle it?
It’s downright funereal around here, and the news has only been out for a few hours. The only silver lining on this cloud is that there won’t be so much traffic at 6:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.
Mr. brown was fired from the only biotech employer in our old haunts (ostensibly because he took a half day off and pretended it was for a doctor’s appointment; the real reason was because they were systematically getting rid of workers over 40). We had to move to a different part of the state because the bay area of California is rich in biotech companies and he has many more opportunities to be employed. Thankfully, biotech is becoming big and his age is not much of an issue because employees with biotech experience are sought after here. We’re still bitter about the original employer though. They like to project an image of “we never do layoffs here!”, but in reality, they just fire the old-timers for trumped-up reasons. Assholes.
American Optical, the big employer in Southbridge, MA, started exporting manufacturing its manufacturing to Mexico in 1984 (ironically, just one year after the company’s 150th anniversary, the subject of a major celebration in town). The layoffs started then and went on gradually over the next 20 years, with the company being broken up and sold in the process. Today the “campus” still holds small remnants of two of the parts of the business sold to other buyers, but the headquarters have moved on and vasty areas of the factories are empty. The last lens grinders (specialist glass grinding that they tried to move out of the country, but couldn’t fuind the highly-skilled workers for) just shut down last October. For the first time, nobody at the site is making lenses.
The town has survived, in part because of the parts of the business bought by other companies, in part from spin-offs of AO that are still in existence, in part because of other, unrelated businesses. But the downtown in undeniably quieter and changed in character. You know things aren’t at their best when one of the biggest shops on Main Street is a rent-to-own store.
Nevertheless, there are signs of life, and a dedicated bunch is devoted to sprucing up downtown and putting the best face on things. It helps that this is a popular area for the moderately well-to-do. If you get a mile or so from downtown there are phenomenal houses and a few golf courses. Downtown facilities like the YMCA and the Library recently got expansions and fix-ups.
So the loss of a major business need not be the end. But money still has to come from somewhere – you need to have other employers in the area and a group of citizens committed to the preservation of the town.
Thanks for the input. It’s going to be interesting to see how this turns out. The community has subsidized the plant in several ways, and I’m hoping it will do the same for other companies that might be able to take up some of the slack.
With all the resources – the workforce, the plant itself, and the technology (especially the plastics) – even if the bottom drops out of the laundry business, maybe it can be adapted to something else.
Fingers crossed. 