VICEGRIP SHUTTING DOWN
MOVING TO CHINA
http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/27811459.html
Employees of the DeWitt, Nebraska Vise-Grips plant got the official word Wednesday morning that their jobs are being eliminated. The plant is shutting down with operations being moved to China.
Gary Oden has known for weeks that the plant where he has spent the last 19 years helping build one of Nebraska's most famous products would be closing, but he still wasn't completely prepared for the meeting at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday.
"It's a kick in the head," Oden said from a DeWitt bar where employees gathered to discuss the announcement and "try to forget about it."
Newell Rubbermaid owns the Vise-Grip brand. A plant employee said managers were in meetings Wednesday and not available to comment.
About 300 people work at the plant, which for decades has anchored the southeast Nebraska town of DeWitt, population about 600.
Roughly 40 of the employees make Unibit tool parts. According to Oden, managers said Unibit operations are moving to Maine. The plant closure is sure to rattle more than the town's residents and the plant's workers.
Vise-Grip is an iconic name in Nebraska, one of the most famous products invented or developed in the state, along with Kool-Aid, raisin bran and the Reuben sandwich.
The locking pliers have been manufactured in DeWitt for more than 80 years. DeWitt blacksmith and Danish immigrant William Petersen got a patent for the device in 1924. By 1928, the company had more than 600 employees.
When Petersen died in 1962, his family took over. The business was eventually renamed American Tool Cos. American Tool sold out in 2002 to Newell Rubbermaid, a minority owner since 1985. Since then, the DeWitt plant has operated under the name of Irwin Industrial Tools, a company American Tool bought in 1993.
Oden said employees were told that "to keep the Vise-Grip name competitive, they had to move to China."
Newell Rubbermaid plans to close the plant at the end of October.
Randy Badman, a member of the DeWitt Village Board says the town is unsure where to go from here. "It will hurt the village for a time. I don't know how devastating it will be, we've never been without it so we really don't know necessarily what to expect."
When small town companies move, they're affecting everyone in the community, not just their employees.
Downtown Valley is thriving and businesses are moving in. "So I really wanted to promote the town and help the town progress and the townspeople have been wonderful, everybody's been supportive,” said Wendy Deane, who brought her business here five years ago and renovated the building with high hopes. She hasn't been disappointed.
"3M, they'll call and sometimes they need sandwiches for they do once a month where they bring in someone else." Although the downtown district has a variety of businesses, Valley's economy is anchored by larger plants, including 3M.
Valley Mayor Mary Caffey says small towns understand the economic impact of the larger companies. "It grows the community, it grows the tax base, it brings new people into town, it creates an opportunity for employment in town, which is very important and additionally it just brings diversity to the town."
"For every job created, more jobs are created, so it works in the negative sense if you lose a job, then you're going to lose opportunities and you could lose business," said Mayor Caffey of the situation in DeWitt.
