Plant Closing Stories
Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania workers have lost jobs in manufacturing over the last several years. Here are the stories of some recent closings.
Anticipated August 2005
Warshow, Milton PA: 150 Jobs
H. Warshow and Sons Inc., a fabric manufacturer, will probably close its plant in Milton in August according to a report in the Sunbury Daily Item. A company source told the Daily Item that the company "just really can't compete with Wal-Mart and China . . . I mean we have a good product and people are going where the can pay less." A plant in Virginia would also be affected.
The plants might be kept alive if the company's business recovers in the next couple of weeks according to the source.
May 2005
Thor America, Middleburg PA: 120 Jobs Lost
Early in 2005 International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers at the Thor America plant in Middleburg were confronted with an ultimatum from the company: suffer a pay cut of $4.40 an hour (from $13.40 to $9.00) and suck up a 300 percent rise in health insurance contributions or else the plant would face closure.
From the time it announced the pay cuts, Thor America (an RV manufacturer) blamed workers for the plant's problems. In what appeared to be a well-planned PR strategy to undermine the position of Thor's workers in the community, the company complained that 4,000 man hours lost to absenteeism in 2004 forced Thor to take the action it did.
A more likely reason for Thor America's action is perhaps that its parent company, Thor Industries, had recently built new manufacturing facilities, elsewhere in the U.S. The company spent spending $23 million on capital expenditures in 2003 alone. According to Thor Industries 2004 annual report, the company increased it sales by 39% over the previous year, from $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion, and hired 1,130 new employees in other parts of the country.
The Sunbury Daily Item reported the view of one worker who had been employed by Thor for 24 years: "We've been wronged by corporate greed. I think they're [Thor] trying to push us out, but they want to make us to look like the bad guys." Company officials never responded to the Daily Item's request for interviews.
The plant closed on April 15, 2005 after 28 years of making RVs.
DO YOU HAVE A PLANT CLOSING STORY?
The PA AFL-CIO wants to document the impact of the loss of manufacturing jobs in communities across Pennsylvania.
Have you or your family been affected by a plant-closing or lay-off in the last 12 months? If you have we would like to hear from you. Use this special feedback form to get in touch.