Thread: Siemens to cut 720 Ohio jobs, moving them to Mexico.

Siemens to cut 720 jobs
Bellefontaine, Urbana plants to close; company to outsource
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Paul Wilson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


Lisa Plikerd tells her mom that she will lose her job at Siemens Energy & Automation plant.


BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio — When Lisa Plikerd arrived at work yesterday, the single mother was stunned by the news that her job will be eliminated.

She was among 720 employees at Siemens Energy & Automation plants here and in nearby Urbana who learned their plants would close, with the first job cuts likely in August. The news hit hard across both communities, coming just a couple of weeks before the holidays.

"We just had a meeting where everything was happy and good," said Plikerd, who has worked at the plant for 11 years. "But they can make things (in other countries) for a little bit of nothing."

Siemens plans to shift work from the two Ohio plants to "existing facilities of Siemens Mexico or other third-party suppliers," the company said. The Ohio plants make highvoltage circuit breakers for industrial and commercial use.

"We understand the impact of these actions on the people directly affected and to the community," Dennis Sadlowski, chief operating officer of Siemens Energy & Automation, said in a statement. "However, we are forced to make these changes to protect the rest of our company and keep us in a competitive position for our customers."

Siemens Energy & Automation is a subsidiary of Siemens AG, a German company with annual sales of $107 billion, making it one of the largest electronics and engineering companies in the world.

Counting the jobs in Bellefontaine and Urbana, Siemens employs more than 2,100 people in Ohio. About 350 work in the Columbus area, operations not affected by yesterday’s announcement.

The story is all-too-familiar in the industrial heartland, as manufacturers continue to outsource jobs, said Peter Morici, a professor at the University of Maryland. Much of the pressure comes from China, which has some of the lowest labor costs in the world.

"We’re losing thousands of jobs each month to outsourcing," Morici said. "It makes workers’ lives tougher in areas like the industrial Midwest."

For Bellefontaine, population 13,000, and Urbana, population 11,600, the job cuts disrupt more than the lives of 720 people and their families. Devastating was the word leaders and residents most commonly used to describe the economic impact on the two cities, each of which is about 50 miles from Columbus.

"We absolutely cannot afford to lose any more jobs in Urbana," said Earl Evans, president of the Urbana City Council. "We’re trying our best in Urbana just to hold our own."

The city stands to lose the 1.4 percent in payroll taxes from Siemens workers. The company is one of Urbana’s largest employers after Honeywell and Rittal Corp., Evans said.

Bellefontaine collects several hundred thousand dollars in income tax from Siemens, Mayor Robert Lentz said.

"Siemens has been a vital part of our industrial community for many years, and it will be greatly missed," he said.

Other businesses likely will suffer, too.

Siemens workers buy plenty of cigarettes, soda, lottery tickets and sandwiches from the Rich Oil service station across from the plant on N. Main Street in Bellefontaine.

"This is going to hurt. They’re in here before work in the morning and after work and for lunch," store clerk Kim Rogers said.

With the first of the job cuts eight months away, some workers wondered why Siemens would make the announcement so close to the holidays.

"Merry Christmas — that’s what I have to say," said Lori Anderson, 26, who has worked at the Urbana plant for six years.

The announcement came yesterday because the company wanted to be frank with workers, Siemens spokesman Michael Krampe said.

"We wanted to be as open and honest with our employees as close as possible to (when) the decision was made," he said. "When you make a significant decision like this, it’s difficult to wait until after Christmas to announce it."

Some workers held out hope that the announcement was a way for the company to extract union concessions. Hourly employees at the Bellefontaine plant make about $19 an hour, said John Drake, president of Local 1691 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

"We’re hoping we can communicate with Siemens to keep (the plant) here," he said. "I think their minds are made up, but it’s something I’ve got to try."

Dispatch reporter Monique Curet contributed to this story.

http://www.dispatch.com/business-story. ... A1-01.html

Tell them to take 720 illegal aliens with them.

Dixie

Sadly this is happening all across America, I wonder what they think they will do when there is no one here that can afford to buy their products.

We hear more and more stories like this. Heartbreaking!
I am so worried about the future of this country for so many reasons.