Posted on 08/26/2009 5:18:48 PM PDT by Son House
Workers on the second shift at Cummins Filtration were gathered together Monday, told the news, and sent home with a letter directing them to be back in the morning. Tuesday morning, with a team of security guards surrounding company officials, workers at the company's two Lake Mills plants got the word and were then sent home for the day to be with their families.
Starting in November, about 400 jobs will be moved to Cummins manufacturing plants in San Luis Polosi, Mexico. The job shift will take four months, completed by March, 2010. The cost-cutting move will help the company stay competitive, it explained in a statement.
"We had no clue," said Marilyn Hoffman, the Executive Director of the Lake Mills Chamber Development Corporation.
Hoffman was at a meeting in Ames when she got the news Tuesday morning--she says she ran out to her car and drove home as fast as she could. By the time she got back to Lake Mills, most of the news reporters had been there and gone, and she had time to mull over what had just happened while she was out of town.
"This is devastating for our little town," Hoffman said, doing her best to put a brave face on things. "There is going to be a big impact. We are fortunate that we do have other strong industries in town. Before this happened we had between 1,600 and 1,700 jobs... this will have a dramatic impact. But we still have other good jobs, and we're going to work with industries, we're going to work our State of Iowa and Workforce Development to try to pull this all together."
About 110 jobs will remain at Cummins in Lake Mills, positions not involved in the filter assembly operations.
Some of the Cummins employees spent much of the day at the bar, and by day's end were in mourning and still trying to make sense out of their new status--victims of outsourcing of their jobs to Mexico. In the late afternoon, the parking lots at the two plants were nearly empty, with security guards still on high alert for any trouble.
Nearby, at the Grand Cafe, photos of the old days are on the wall. Here, they still call the plant "Fleetguard"--the brand first initiated by Cummins in 1963. This is the kind of place where oldtimers typically drop in and are greeted by a waitress asking... "the usual?" The owner of the cafe looked over the counter where grill orders are taken, and introduced her granddaughter.
"Her best friend's mom and dad both work at the plant," said Diane Brackey. "Been there for 30 years. This is going to be terrible for people like them. Terrible for this town. It's going to hurt everybody, the gas station, the grocery store."
Hoffman says there are 35 couples working at the plant, so this decision could be a double-whammy for 35 families.
Remembering a change in plant managers recently, people were muttering that they "should have known."
But the bottom line in Lake Mills is that no one had a clue that this was going to happen. And now, there's apparently not much that can be done about it.
State Sen. Merlin Bartz issued a statement Wednesday morning promising he will be in touch about trying to reverse the decision.
"I want to explore every option before assuming that these jobs cannot be saved. And if indeed the company decision does not change, I will want to ensure the smoothest transition possible for the laid off employees so they can quickly get back into the workforce. Having access to job training and education programs so they can easily make that transition is critical. In my talks with Northern Iowa Economic Development Directors, the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and Iowa Workforce Development, I've been assured that everything possible is being done to help the employees and their families return to normalcy. I also want to work with these groups to make sure we help Fleetguard explore every avenue before they make the final transition of jobs to another country."
But Cummins lays out its case forcefully in a statement to news organizations that it had to do something.
"The current recession has led to the steepest drop in sales in the 52-year history of Cummins Filtration," said Cummins Filtration President Joseph Saoud. "Sales have fallen more than 30 percent since November 2008, and we do not expect any meaningful recovery in demand until 2011."
Company officials said the San Luis Polosi plant produces the same type of products as the ones in Lake Mills, and is the most modern and cost-effective. Labor costs at plants in Mexico are typically a fraction of those in the U.S. A KTTC NewsCenter investigation in April showed that hundreds of companies have moved tens of thousands of jobs from the Upper Midwest to Mexico in the past ten years under the incentives created by the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA).
Hoffman told us that Lake Mills would ask for help from their counterparts in Newton, which recently weathered a mass layoff at Maytag.
"We want to learn from what happened in Newton," she said. "They were able to recruit new industry, which has brought about a thousand jobs to the community."
The hundreds of workers at Cummins' north and south plants in Lake Mills can now look forward to individual meetings with human resources professionals, about their status, and their options.
One thing is clear--life will not be the same in Lake Mills, there is now a new level of fear and anger about getting food to eat, paying the mortgage, everything
Voting Democrat means no economy.
Don't be blind-sided, Democrats are in charge
Gee! I wonder if these workers were Union? I didn’t hear any mention of that.
Are the lost jobs union?
“San Luis Polosi”?
Ay Caramba!
Feel the Union Pride.
They invested $400 million to elect Obama and his policies and decision are forcing Union Jobs out of the country.
I know I’ve said that on here. :D
That said, I suspect these people are too stupid to put cause and effect together.
This is just the beginning. We will not only continue to bleed jobs overseas but new jobs won’t be created here.
If I were forced to start a manufacturing business I’d start it overseas. No way would I risk unionization, cap and trade, and higher taxes on health care as well as local and state taxes rising through the roof. Add to that all of the red tape and future regulations and you’re pretty much dead before you start.
To top it all off, if you happen to succeed you’ll be ridiculed and spit on by the leftists running the government right now. Not to mention the lawyers looking to sue you out of business for anything, whether you broke the law or not. It’s just not worth it to do business here anymore.
More Hopey, Changey for these union folks. I do feel for the ones that didn’t support Obama or the Union. (If there were any).
I didn't know there was already a plant in Mexico making these. I know my last two Dodge Cummins trucks were assembled in Mexico.
Brazil is and will be the next area where manufacturing will be going to.
Check out this video about Ford's most advanced plant in Brazil:
http://apps.detnews.com/apps/multimedia/player/index.php?id=1189
It is very impressive.
A quick Google Maps search turns up UAW local 867 in Lake Mills. Since they don’t seem to have any other auto manufacturing there that I can see, I’m guessing yes.
Of course, in Democratland, all workers are union, so why mention it? :P
Hey, and this make the greatest excuse for companies to move completely out of the country, where their foreign peasant labor think company benefits mean a 10 minute break.
If they’re paying union dues, they’re supporting Obama and the Union. Don’t like it? Don’t be in a union! :P
Solidarity, and all that. Sheesh! Doesn't that count for something?
That is a great video. Thanks for the link.
Hope and Change? HOPE that Union members CHANGE their underwear after digesting the CRAP that Dear Leader has loosed upon you!
LESS HOPE.....but a lot MORE CHANGE to come!
A PAID 10 minute break is a company benefit.
The product quality will deteriorate as the angry workers learn to not give a damn.
“Feel the Union Pride.
They invested $400 million to elect Obama and his policies and decision are forcing Union Jobs out of the country.”
How’s that hope and change workin’ out for you NOW?!
Iowa helped launch Obama. Enjoy the Hope & Change. These fools will keep voting Dem.
>>”I suspect these people are too stupid to put cause and effect together.”<<
You nailed it, Spktyr! You must be speaking of my Sister-in-law and her politically retarded husband from Lake Mills. When asked why they voted for 0bama they responded “because he’s a Democrat”.......duh
BTW, the entire family has disowned them and she can’t figure out why......duh, again.
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