Indianapolis foundry to close Sept. 30, eliminating 881 jobs

[IndianaGreen]

Here is the reality of Bush's "robust economy" as the MSM has been describing our present economic troubles.

Invariably we always get a smart ass to say that the workers deserve to lose their jobs because they live in a red state. Obviously, no one that belongs to a labor union would ever say such a stupid thing about their comrades in another local or union. To people that make such remarks, I will say that the UAW workers that are losing their jobs played a key role in getting Kerry to carry Indianapolis-Marion County with a comfortable lead. It is not their fault that the election system in our country dilutes the votes of the urban centers with the votes of the mostly Republican suburbs. In our case, it means the votes of people living outside Indianapolis-Marion County.

Indianapolis foundry to close Sept. 30, eliminating 881 jobs

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - 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.

<snip>

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.

http://wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=3718152&nav=9TahdIgz

[Bluzmann57]

1. Well I gotta tell you

This news really sucks. I am a Union member who has been through this crap twice and so I can sympathize greatly. I also live in a red state, although this side of the stae is blue, but who cares? It ain't right for people to lose jobs they have had for years because the ceo wants more money, or wants to break Unions, or both. Good luck to those who are losing their long time foundry jobs. My thoughts are with you.