Hundreds Losing Jobs As Thomson's Marion Plant Closes (1500 in Indiana and Ohio)

WRTV ^ | 3/16/2004 | WRTV TV

[lelio]

MARION, Ind. -- A Thomson plant in Marion and another in Ohio are closing Tuesday, costing hundreds of workers their jobs.

Thomson said declining demand for television picture tubes is forcing the company to close the plants.

About 990 employees at the Thomson picture tube plant in Marion and 545 workers at the company's Circleville, Ohio, glass plant are being notified of the closing Tuesday.

The Circleville plant manfactures the glass used to build picture tubes in Marion.

Company spokesman Dick Knoph said the reason for the closing is economic.

Employees were to be sent home following meetings at the plants.

Knoph said consumers are switching to other types of television sets that don't use traditional picture tubes like the ones manufactured at the plants.

Thomson spokesman Dave Arland said Thomson's operations in Carmel are not affected.

[lelio]

Is production going to their Chinese or Mexican facilities?

[raisincane]

Mexico

[MD_Willington_1976]

Within a few years most picture tube plants will be shut down anyway as plasma screens replace the tubes...sure it sucks but it will happen...

[rhombus]

LCD production is where it is going. Where's that?

[So Cal Rocket]

It's a supply and demand issue... this is a picture tube factory... the demand for picture tubes is going down due to LCD screens, plasma screens, etc... they don't need to build as many picture tubes as they used to, therefore they don't need as many employees as they used to.

How many buggy whip manufacturers are there today?

[Voltage]

I blame myself for not buying a TV in the last several years.

[StevieB]

I don't know if this plant is in a new building or the old, original facility. (The old plant was originally a Dumont plant that was taken over by RCA.) When I was a kid (in the 1950's) we used to drive by the plant in the evening. You could see rows of picture tubes glowing, going through burn-in. It was quite a sight.

[Dane]

BTW, Thompson is a french owned company.

[Buddy B]

I don't know if this plant is in a new building or the old, original facility. (The old plant was originally a Dumont plant that was taken over by RCA.)

I worked at the RCA plant for two weeks in 1952.

Cheers...Buddy B

[Tacis]

They were supposed to close down last month but management couldn't reach the union officers who were at a meeting in Bal Harbour, Florida and did not answer messages left with butlers. Bal Harbour is important to union officials because local hookers are specially trained to deal with obese but wealthy men.

[68skylark]

I used to travel to Marion quite a bit for drills. To me, it's a city with few charms -- it's not unattractive, just nothing special. Indiana really needs to move its economy away from manufacturing -- that's a base that's shrinking. There are a lot of other sectors of the economy that can do better & pay better. But those sectors require workers with better skills and education.

[lelio]

Where can these 990 people laid off find work in Marion? Do most of them live in Indianapolis?

I find it amusing that the spokesman noted that Carmel's not going to be affected. Well not yet. How much of their backoffice work is sent down to Mexico?

I drove through Circleville aka "Roundtown" to my brother's wedding one year. What else is out there to do besides work for Thomson?

[mpreston]

Mexico - NOT for long! Picture Tube = Smithsonsian

[Damagro]

Uh, there is no production of things that people are no longer buying. The picture tube is the newest buggywhip. No longer needed. The question shoud be, is this company producing components for flat screens, plasma and other new tv's? If not, they failed to see the future of consumer electronics

[BillM]

By next year. Sony no longer even manufactures any CRT's

[MD_Willington_1976]

Yeah, the EPA or someone will say that the chemicals involved in manufacturing are way too harmful, and the tubes have to be phased out blah blah blah...I don't plan on buying a new idiot box until the one I have is ready for the target range...

[fermion]

I doubt the closure of Thomson's Marion CRT facility was due to its workers having inadequate skills and education. Thomson's failure to make a smooth transition into newer display formats such as TFT-LCDs, plasma, and organic LEDs, was probably far more relevant to this decision, as others have pointed out.

What other sectors of the economy did you have in mind? Merchandising? Non-tradable services? Utilities? Agriculture?