Plant which employs 3% of Sioux City, IA workers is closing. 1450 jobs gone

[Bluebear]

John Morrell & Co. is closing its pork processing plant in Sioux City, eliminating all 1,450 hourly and salaried jobs at one of the city's largest employers, the company announced Wednesday.

The subsidiary of Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield Foods Inc. said the plant that employs more than 3 percent of the city's workers would close April 20.

John Morrell President Joseph B. Sebring cited the age of the plant, which was built in 1959, and the struggling economy in announcing the closure....

A telephone call to Smithfield Foods, the nation's largest pork producer, was not immediately returned Wednesday.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9611084

[leftstreet]

1. Jobless Recovery!

This must be part of the plan!

K&R

[aquart]

2. Why is this being allowed?

Seriously, what has the state done to stop it?

[1]

3. are these union jobs?

[smoochpooch]

4. I don't think they are union. There is a plant in Sioux City and one in Sioux Falls.

It used to be that if you needed a job, you could probably walk right into Morrel's and get a job on the night shift cutting up the meat or whatever. I met a lot of people (men and women) who worked in the Sioux Falls plant for a very short amount of time. The pay was not good considering the work you had to do, and most people couldn't stand it very long. It was considered kind of a last resort job. I don't know if the Sioux City plant was the same, but I imagine the two plants are fairly similar.

[progressoid]

7. They used to be good paying jobs. A long time ago.

Like you said, especially considering what you have to do.

But like most good paying jobs, they are long gone.

[littlebit]

5. I don't think they are.

I know the Smithfield plant here in NC isn't. They fought really hard to keep the union out.

[ccharles000]

6. k/r

[progressoid]

8. Plus another 480 jobs lost 90 miles to the south.

COUNCIL BLUFFS — One meatpacking plant closing. One production shift ending. 1,930 jobs gone.

Just two days after John Morrell & Co. said that it would close its pork-processing plant in Sioux City, Iowa, Tyson Foods said Friday that it will end one shift at a Council Bluffs plant and shift some production to facilities in Tennessee and Texas.

The Morrell move, effective in April, eliminates about 1,450 jobs. Losing the second shift at the Tyson plant will lay off about 480 of its 1,300-member work force.

The second shift case-ready production at the Bluffs plant — which packages steaks, roasts, chops, ground beef and other items ready for the grocery meat case — likely will be ended March 22, Tyson said.

The announcement by company officials said the need to control costs and “the continued growth of case-ready beef and pork sales in the southern U.S.” led to the decision to shift work closer to that growth area.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100122/MONEY/701229833