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.

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

[Botany]

1. Damn

When does this nightmare end?

[IndianaGreen]

2. Everytime we drove by the foundry which sits next to I-70

the kids would complain about the smell. I always told them about the workers at the foundry, and the shaft they got from the owners, and compare their fate to that of the GE workers in Indianapolis and Bloomington.

The kids know that it is the workers that create all the wealth!

[wli]

3. another retreat to the "serfdom economy"

[Ouabache]

4. Mitch won't give a shit

The way he sees it they are all union jobs anyway.

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

5. What they don't bother to tell you about New Castle...

Most of those 1,400 New Castle workers were laid off when the plant was sold, and they were promised by Chrysler that the first jobs that came open in Kokomo, they would be the first called back. My brother is in skilled trades and has sat idle for more than 18 months now. Word has now come down that the Indy workers will get first chance at the Kokomo openings (if and when they happen). So unfair! Those on layoff were told that if a Chrylser job opens in Detroit (MI), Kenosha (WI) or Toledo (OH) that they have to accept whatever it is, or they are forever done with Chrysler and their severance benefits go with it. I recommend that the Indianapolis foundry workers DON'T hold out for Chrysler's promise of a future job. Take the education benefits, use them, then find somewhere else to work. The only thing that Chrysler cares about are the shareholders!

[Sadie5]

6. It's a Daniels economy

Daniels could care less if the citizens who pay his salary get anything. Too bad he has to settle for the mouldy old Governor's mansion when he wants to live in a new million dollar home in Carmel. He has already cut school funding but watch his slash benefits for the poor and aged.

[SpeedwayDemocrat]

9. Cutting school funding...

is just Mitch's way of eliminating all public education. He's got this grand plan of 2 students per computer (which is good), but not when he forces the public schools to purchase from one particular PC supplier and provides no funding for additional tech personnel needed to keep these machines up and running. What a jerk!

[Dextrous Scribe]

7. The Foundry

I have been down-sized twice and fully understand the pain and problems that come with job loss.

The people that live around this foundry can be nothing but happy. The incidence of asthma surrounding the plant is much higher than in other areas of Indianapolis. The air around that plant is so good that it takes paint off cars in the neighborhood.

This is a victory for the local ecology and the health of the men, women, and children that live near the plant.

Blaming the Governor for a decision made in Germany and Detroit fails to recognize the FACT of global competition. This is a global phenomenon. In Germany manual, low skilled, and skilled work is sent to eastern European countries like Romania because of the lower wage rates. Japanese work has gone to Korea and China.

What any thinking person needs to do to insulate himself or herself from this phenomenon is to maximize ones educational level and increase ones employment flexibility.

[Ouabache]

8. and it happens right after a radiation leak at the plant ??

check this out>>>

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=114&topic_id=17268&mesg_id=17268

[halsaxby]

10. Jesus...

That plant is a behemoth. The hits just keep on coming.....

[DrGonzoLives]

11. I thought they were closing it down years ago

It was all a matter of time anyway.