Electrolux moves jobs to Juárez
By Adriana Gómez Licón \ El Paso Times
Posted: 11/11/2010 12:00:00 AM MST


An appliance manufacturing company with two plants in Iowa will lay off 850 workers and shift nearly all its operations to Juárez by early next year.

The company, Electrolux, already has a work force of 6,000 in Juárez.

Based in Sweden and publicly traded on the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm stock exchange, Electrolux is best known in Juárez for its production of refrigerators, as well as for washers and dryers.

Plant closings in Iowa will result in 850 layoffs in Webster City and Jefferson, two towns northwest of Des Moines. Electrolux will leave about 75 jobs in a research center in Iowa.

Webster City Mayor Janet Adams said Electrolux was the largest employer in an eight-county area. Adams said Electrolux once employed about 2,400 people in Webster City, which has a population of 8,500.

Adams said the company began notifying city officials of cutbacks in 2006, when it began moving operations to Juárez.

"I am disappointed for the people who are losing their jobs," Adams said Wednesday.

Frank Wagner, vice president of operations at Electrolux Major Appliances North America, previously called the Iowa plant closings "a difficult but necessary decision."

Large manufacturers of home appliances reported drops in third-quarter earnings. Many consumers, caught in the economic downturn, were wary of buying big-ticket products such as refrigerators, stoves, washers and dryers, analysts said.

Electrolux did not buck the trend. It posted a 15 percent drop in earnings. Electrolux products sell at national chains such as Best Buy, Lowe's, Sears and Target.

Unclear Wednesday was how many more jobs will move from Iowa to Juárez, said Electrolux spokesman Tony Evans.

Juárez Mayor Héctor MurguÃ*a said the company will boost the economy and public safety because people are desperately looking for jobs in the city torn by drug violence.

"It makes us happy enough to host a party," he said Wednesday.

Unemployment in Juárez is at 20 percent.

Although no important company left Juárez, about 83,000 people lost their maquiladora, or manufacturing, jobs from 2008 to 2009, said the Mexican Social Security Institute. The city has recovered 23,000 jobs since October 2009.

In all, more than 200,000 people work in 343 factories.

Drug cartel violence has played a role in the maquiladora fortunes.

City officials said executives at times hesitated to start operations in Juárez because the city is known as North America's murder capital. Since 2008, about 6,900 homicides have occurred in Juárez.

Industrial parks in Juárez are heavily guarded.

More federal police agents and city police officers patrol factories. Plant executives commute between El Paso and Juárez in armored vehicles with bodyguards.

Still, maquila workers have not been immune to the epidemic of violence. In October, gunmen attacked three buses carrying workers, killing three women and a man.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_ ... otimes.com

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Can you all believe this? That despite what the current state of what Juarez is that ANY company would move to Juarez?