Unions and Factory Closures

The company DH works for has closed a couple of plants recently, and there are so many issues involved. My heart goes out to the people who have lost their jobs; I have had anxiety that one day we will be in the same situation. I am not sure why this particular plant was chosen to be shut down. And the parent organization has chosen to not sell it. From a business standpoint, there are benefits to not selling it. The new owners would be competition. They may re-open it some time in the future. They may be able to write it off as a loss.

From a community perspective, it is devastating. To lose 400 jobs in any area is hard to comprehend. To lose 400 jobs in a smaller city is just disastrous. The people have to find work somewhere. Even if they can find a job, they will not be able to find work that will replace their lost wages. They may have to relocate, but will have a difficult time selling their homes. The value of their homes will deflate considerably.

Understandably, the workers are doing everything they can to reverse the decision. It is possible that the people who made the final decision did so with only the bottom line in mind and it was an uncomplicated decision to them. It is likely that they were given the objective of reaching a certain financial goal and had to figure out which location to close. I would absolutely hate to be the people who had to make that decision.

I know that situation; I've lived it. When I worked for a folding carton company based out of Chicago as the HR/Accounting Coordinator, I watched our division president languish over the decision of who to keep and who to let go when the plant was downsizing. Eventually it closed completely. He was given a certain number of employees he could keep, and he had to decide who stayed and who went. I saw our president give the owner heck. One day in particular, the owner, LF, called about 20 times in a row trying to get my boss on the phone. The three of us who were expected to answer the phone were about to walk out. LF was so angry, understandably, I guess, that the boss wouldn't talk to him. My boss was furious that LF wouldn't let him do his job. Try being the one who tells the owner that your boss is in his office, but will not pick up the phone to speak to him! Yikes. I do have to say, that our boss was the best boss I have ever worked for - in a Christian or secular job. The owner was in our building in about an hour and a half. That was a loud office day.

So, I've seen the process from the inside. I was one of those salaried people who was expected to lie outright or by omission. The decision was made in January to close the plant, but it wasn't announced until the end of February. There were rumors and fears swirling around and they were coming to me as the HR person for any answers I could give them.

DH is a union member. I see firsthand how the union benefits the workers, especially in the area of pay. However, the union often does not operate with the best interest of the local worker in mind. So many of the decisions seem to ignore the needs of the local plant. And how on earth could a union of an industry support the Dems? The same people who are more concerned about emissions than keeping plants like ours up and running? DH gets so angry that his union dues are going to support the democRATS. The party that got us going down the NAFTA path, and all that that entails.

And with contract negotiations approaching, the thought that the parent company could just close our division rather than be influenced by the union... That is a bit unsettling. Some of the decision-makers in the company have worked in our plant at one point or another. And some of them are horse's rear ends. So that makes things complicated, too. How do you respectfully deal with someone who did their darndest to close your plant - even if it meant fabricating records and numbers? Hopefully, that HRE won't be involved in contract negotiations.

So, while my heart breaks for those people who are out of work, I can see the point of the owners, too. I don't know the details of why that particular plant was chosen to close. I can only breathe a sigh of relief that for the time being, it wasn't ours.