Timken Closing Plants That Employ 1,300 (Canton, Ohio)

[hatrack]

CANTON, Ohio (AP) -- The Timken Co. said Friday that it will close three Canton bearings plants that employ 1,300 workers.

The company said production at the three plants has declined 27 percent over the last five years and that the plan to shut them down is consistent with Timken's overall goal to improve profitability. "It's just all about being competitive," Timken spokesman Jason Saragin said.

The company said it expects most of the production to be shifted to other U.S. plants. No timeline for the closings has been set.

Timken and its union must negotiate whether employees will be transferred to the company's other plants, Saragin said. The closing plants are some of the company's oldest facilities, including its first one built in 1901."

EDIT

[WLKjr]

1. Our state is crumbling

slowly but surely. So many here in Ohio have lost jobs in the past couple of years. I work retail and even though it seems to be doing well now, it won't for much longer if people keep losing the way they make money to spend at the store.

Seeing this happen to Ohio, my home, makes me want to make a difference and make Ohio great again.....

[No Passaran]

13. The question is...

what's Ohio gonna do in November?

[MaineDem]

2. More signs that the economy is improving

Sarcastic, of course.

How sad...

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. It's just all about being competitive

"All about being competitive" means moving production to China.

[GOPisEvil]

4. Didn't * do a speech from there a couple of years back?

Fitting somehow...

[OilemFirchen]

6. Yup

"I appreciate the Timken family for their leadership, their concern about their fellow associates. They're working hard to make sure the future of this company is bright, and therefore, the future of employment is bright for the families that work here, that work to put food on the table for their children."

[jackstraw45]

8. Bush* knows how to "put food on your family" NM

NM

[Warren Stuart]

5. Isn't this the company that had the Made in China boxes taped

Or was it the one in which Bush touted how his tax cuts was going to save companies like Timkin?

The "Made In China" incident was blamed on "overzealous volunteers" this was probably the worst bunch of swill ever swallowed by the US Media.

[hatrack]

14. Actually, that was in St. Louis

Can't remember the name of the company - a shipping firm of some sort - but it was a different town.

[UpInArms]

7. Timken luvs *Co

http://www.timken.com/media/speeches/timken_introduces_bush.asp

Introduction of President Bush
by: W.R. "Tim" Timken, Jr.
date: April 24, 2003
audience: Timken associates and government officials

excerpt:

The President is here today because he understands manufacturing is the engine of growth and creator for our American economy.

While I was National Association of Manufacturing chairman, he spoke passionately to me about providing every American with an opportunity for a good job. He understands what it means for families when slow growth limits employment possibilities.

The NAM and I endorse the President's plan for jobs and economic growth. We believe the package should be passed by the Congress quickly. This is the best way to put people to work and drive our economy.

:puke:

[July]

17. Retired CEO of Timken is on Diebold board. n/t

[leesa]

9. I am so sorry for those people, but Ohio is a RW bastion and they need

dramatic lessons in order to finally learn that the GOP is disastrous when it comes to job creation.
Ohio has to vote them out and this is certainly going to make it hit home!

[Furity]

12. I don't know

NE Ohio is not a "RW bastion", and this is a bad blow for this area. I personally know 3 people that work for Timken, and this is a mortal blow for them and their families. Two are in their fifties, and never have a hope and a prayer in getting an equivalent job. The other has three kids under the age of 7......oh well. Oh, BTW, none of them supported Bush.

~Furity

[Kolesar]

15. Ohio is a very diverse state that compromises with "moderate politics"

In polls of Ohioans, they don't have right wing opinions. However, there are some regions that are very right wing (and fundamentalist).

The GOP has a hold on the state that goes back to the very founding of the party. The abolisionists lived here. The party was founded on ending slavery and polygamy. Ohio became a GOP stronghold on that foundation, and being the industrial powerhouse it was in the late 19th century, it went on to send five presidents to the White House.

It is time for that era to end.

[markses]

10. No doubt Bush will be arriving shortly in his French Canadian Bus

As we say in Brooklyn, Watta bagiagaloop!

[struggle4progress]

11. kick

:kick:

[cmd]

16. From our local paper (Canton area) paper yesterday

http://www.timesreporter.com/archive/left_archive.php?ID=29793&r=2

“Greed. All it is, is greed,” Charles Marling said of the Timken Co.’s plan to close its local bearing operations and eliminate 1,300 jobs.

“I’d tell (President) Bush that to his face,” said Marling, a 76-year-old retired LTV worker.

President Bush visited Canton and the Timken Co. just over a year ago, touting the company’s values and efforts to keep people working. Company Chairman W.R. “Tim” Timken Jr. has pledged his support to re-elect Bush, and Bush made Timken the chairman of the board of the Securities Investor Protection Corp.

Marling said Bush’s visit was a “smoke screen” and that Timken officials already knew they would cut jobs. “I predicted that two years ago,” he said. “That’s going to hurt everything, not just the Timken people.”

more...........

[Kolesar]

18. It sounds like Timken is punishing the local union

The article does not really say where the jobs are going, except somewhere else in the USA. It does mention some sort of quality problems at the three Canton plants that are closing.

[Elbowroom]

19. ALSO

They have had a small problem with radioactive material.

[Kolesar]

20. Uranium Yellowcake?

From an African nation, perhaps?

[Claire Beth]

21. another plant closing almost every day! n/t

[TacticalPeek]

22. WH questioned on irony:

Campaign Journal
by Ryan Lizza


McLellan aboard Air Force One:

Q About a year ago, April 24th, last year, the President
went to Canton, Ohio. He went to the Timken
Company. I don't know if you remember the trip, I
wasn't on it. He went to a bearings factory, part of the
Timken Company, touted his economic plans and talked
about jobs and growth. Timken announced today that
they're shutting down that plant that the President
visited a year ago. I just wonder if that's ironic, that the
President touted his economic strategy, doesn't appear
to be working?

posted 3:10 p.m.

http://www.tnr.com/blog/campaignjournal?pid=1657


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x561579

[peterh]

23. I remember Keith Obermann on Countdown…

Mentioning this last Friday I believe….it raised my eyebrow from the standpoint that Keith presented it as a zinger to bush….which is kinda rare on that show….