Indianapolis foundry to close Sept. 30, eliminating 881 jobs

The Centre Daily Times ^ | Fri, Aug. 12, 2005 | KEN KUSMER - Associated Press

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

INDIANAPOLIS - DaimlerChrysler AG will close its Indianapolis foundry and eliminate 881 jobs by Sept. 30, reducing the automaker's once formidable Indiana manufacturing presence to just the city of Kokomo.

DaimlerChrysler recently notified the Indiana Department of Workforce Development of the closure under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, Act. The law requires employers to give 60 days notice before certain plant closings and layoffs. The loss of 881 jobs is the largest in Indiana under WARN this year.

A provision in the four-year labor agreement struck by the automaker and the United Auto Workers in 2003 called for the foundry to close by the end of the third quarter of 2005, company spokeswoman Curtrise Garner said Friday.

"The company and union jointly agreed to that," she said by telephone from DaimlerChrysler's U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich.

News reports at the time of the labor agreement said DaimlerChrysler would phase out the foundry over four years. The plant along Interstate 70 west of downtown Indianapolis produces V-6 and V-8 engine blocks.

UAW Local 550 represents workers at the foundry. Local President James Clark had little to say about the closure when asked for comment Friday. The affected workers, most of whom now live in Indianapolis, have been offered jobs at a variety of other DaimlerChrysler plants, he said.

Workers who choose to transfer to another DaimlerChrysler plant instead of retiring receive 95 percent of their base pay after taxes until a new job is found for them, Garner said.

Department of Workforce Development agency officials will meet with DaimlerChrysler representatives next Thursday to discuss state job assistance to the affected workers, agency spokesman Kip Chase said.

The plant was owned by American Foundry Co. until Chrysler bought it in 1946. The automaker invested in major upgrades there in 1964, 1978, 1988, and the late 1990s.

The closing will diminish DaimlerChrysler's presence in Indiana to Kokomo, where three transmission plants and an aluminum casting plant employ about 7,500 workers. The automaker spun off its 1,400-worker New Castle machine shop to a joint venture three year ago, ending a 96-year history in the eastern Indiana city where the high school still bears the Chrysler name.

The notice to the state of 881 jobs being lost topped Indiana's largest previous WARN job loss this year, for 613 jobs eliminated with the June closure of Tower Automotive's auto frame assembly plant in Corydon.

[warchild9]

My point here and elsewhere is that a country which produces nothing substantial cannot survive in the long run. We can't maintain an economy by selling to one another what someone else produces. Mercantile economies are temporary.

[investigateworld]

"We can use the threat of tariffs as effectively as we can the threat of military reprisal to achieve much of the same objectives."

One. We don't have the b*lls to do that and everyone knows it.
Two. The "K" Street gangs in D. C. would never allow it.
Three. That Chinese general who mentioned nuking L. A. has been monitored career wise and he's doing very well.
Four. Free Trade raises all ships, but the majority of those ships have a yellow hammer and sickle and a sprinkling of yellow stars.
Five. We're now jammed into a situation where we have to do even more trade deals to try and contain China, (Sorta like creating another monster to contain Dr. Frankenstein's baby.) And most of all, why did Congress have to rewrite all the bankruptcy laws if things are going so swell?

[warchild9]

You may find this interesting: we've lost a lot ofmanufacturing jobs here in central NC (mostly due to the 90+ tax increases produced by our state legislature in the past five years)...and a great proportion, a third maybe, have gone to Indiana and Ohio.

Though whether this is because of the taxes or corporate restructuuring, I don't know. I'd blame the taxes. I loathe our state legislature.

[atlanta67]

""My point here and elsewhere is that a country which produces nothing substantial cannot survive in the long run"


hmmm...Switzerland...yes i know they produce those nifty machines when you go to the eye doctor.

BTW the USA produces plenty substantial and for some reason you confuse manufacturing employment with manufacturing output

Go read the recent ISM reports or the recent industrial production reports, youll see industrial production for the past 2 years has been very healthy

[durasell]

I agree mostly with what you said -- tariffs would seem a good solution to at least slow the flow of jobs heading overseas. I don't think you mentioned tariffs previously, just "greedy companies."

But, to play devil's advocate: if I were China and the U.S. imposed tariffs on me, then I'd say, "fine, but I'll be buying 20% less in bonds." Remember, at present time China is one of our largest creditors.

[warchild9]

Havoc still deserves a response.

And note, I always blame government for our problems--although with reservations. Problem government is a symptom of public apathy.

Don't blame the puppet, blame the person profiting from the situation. That's never the puppet.

[Gabz]

Valid points, and no disagreement from me.

[Willie Green]

and FDR's administration held the belief that trade protectionism made world war more not less likely

Good grief, what a myopic buffoon!

Hull achieved general note as one of the conceivers and most ardent supporters of the United Nations.
He provided the main impetus pushing the State Department to write the "Charter of the United Nations", which it accomplished by mid-1943. Hull, upon returning from the Moscow Conference, told a joint session of Congress on November 18, 1943 that Soviet General Secretary Josef Stalin "was one of the great statesmen and leaders of the age" and, "There will no longer be need for spheres of influence, for alliances, for balance of power or for any other of the special arrangements through which the nations strove to safeguard their security or to promote their interests."

(source)

[warchild9]

Switzerland is a small country whose sole purpose for existing has been to provide the world with banking service for, what, seven centuries now?

I should have been a little more precise with my statement. What we increasingly lack is a way for individuals on the bottom to use to work their way up through the social ladder. Basic industrial business has provided that to us since the demise of the agriculture economy. While I'm obviously not an economist, it seems unfortunate to me that Wal Mart is such a person's only means of climbing the ladder--in other words, it's no ladder at all.

[atlanta67]

there were plenty of good things said about Stalin in 1943.

Fact is trade protectionsim did make WW2 more likely as protectionsims was one of the causes that made the economic downturn of 1929-1930 a great depression.

the causes of the Depression were the following:

Stock Market Bubble and Crash
Smoot Hawley
Tax increase in 1930
Gold Standard
Fed Reserve actions

none alone would have caused it.

[DeeOhGee]

Four. Free Trade raises all ships, but the majority of those ships have a yellow hammer and sickle and a sprinkling of yellow stars.

Actually, "free trade" as practiced in the CAFTA/NAFTA world only levels all ships. That means those that are up (the US) naturally go down, and those that are down (everyone else) go up.

[atlanta67]

most of what you say is true but you wont preserve middle clas jobs or economic upward mobility by protecting industrial jobs.

remember what I said, manufacturing jobs are being destroyed by productivity. How do you propose we stop the decline of manufacturing employment due to productivity? Should we? of course not because we would be destroying economic upward mobility if we did that

[warchild9]

I should have added that we are exterminating our basic industrial base while building up that of a Communist country. Up until the fall of the Berlin Wall, that was treason; now, it's Republican business acumen.

Something's gone rotten.

[atlanta67]

i dont disagree that business put profits before national security especially when it comes to China....now it is almost 7pm so this is my last most

[warchild9]

Okey Dokey. Have an evening, friend.

[durasell]

Most companies, especially those selling plastic plates and cut rate blue jeans, aren't in the national security business. It's simply not their job.

[1rudeboy]

While I'm obviously not an economist, it seems unfortunate to me that Wal Mart is such a person's only means of climbing the ladder--in other words, it's no ladder at all.

Tell that to Kevin Turner, the new COO of Microsoft, who started as a part-time hourly at Wal-Mart.

[1rudeboy]

The Zero Sum argument rears its ugly head.

[warchild9]

One in a million. I started out as a night clerk at a 7-11 type store and now I'm...well...maybe I'm not such a good example...ahem...

[Gabz]

And I don't look at your lack of manners as anything other than a lack of common sense and experience..........Of course common courtesy is not a strong suit of many members of gen X.........

I suggest you look a bit closer at the impact over-regulation and union demands have made on the costs of doing business before you blame Americans for trying to make their dollar strtch as far as it can go and the companies that are trying to help them accomplish that.