Plant lays off at least 150 workers
FCI spokesman: Manufacturing jobs moving out of Mount Union, mostly to ChinaBy Cori Bolger, cbolger@altoonamirror.com
MOUNT UNION - Officials with FCI Inc. have announced they will lay off at least 150 employees at the company's manufacturing facility in Mount Union.
The decision will affect 26 salaried workers and 125 hourly workers - about half of the facility's staff.
"We are in the process of making some product transfers and moving manufacturing out of Mount Union, primarily to China,'' said Robert Bewley, FCI spokesman. ''We are doing so to maintain our competitiveness in the marketplace and ... to stay near our main customer base in the Asian-Pacific region.''
An electronics component manufacturer, FCI is a subsidiary of a company that's based in Versailles, France, and has operations in 30 countries worldwide, including several plants in China, Japan and India. The company specializes in making connectors for various industries, including medical, electronic and automotive parts, and considers itself the leading manufacturer of its kind.
The Huntingdon County site, which employs 343, is one of the company's three manufacturing plants in the U.S. and was the first tenant of the Riverview Business Center in Shirley Township.
Company officials met with workers last week and, in accordance with state law, notified the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry of the layoffs and gave those affected a 60-day notice effective Jan. 19. All cuts will be final by March 19.
''We will certainly be working with the people affected,'' Bewley said. ''They are all receiving notifications under the Warren Act. ... We are also helping them by setting them up with the unemployment office ... and, of course, employees are eligible for severance and unemployment compensation.''
Nick Felice, executive director of Huntingdon County Business and Industry, said his organization was disappointed to hear about the action being taken by FCI management.
''Our thoughts and prayers go out to those residents who are being negatively affected by the decision,'' Felice said. ''Our organization has and will continue to engage state, regional and local officials, offering ideas and assistance to FCI hoping to ensure their continued presence in our community. It is an important part of our mission to do all we can to preserve jobs in Huntingdon County.''
Convincing the company to come to the area took extensive work by county and state leaders, who announced its impending arrival in March 1995.
They celebrated the center's groundbreaking in July 1995, with former Gov. Tom Ridge officially opening the facility in September 1996. Formerly Berg Electronics of St. Louis, Mo., the company was acquired by FCI in 1998 for $1.88 billion.
Bewley said the business will continue to operate in Mount Union with half its staff. He would not say whether FCI's other American plants are facing layoffs as well.
Mirror Staff Writer Cori Bolger is at 946-7458.
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livinginBEDROCK
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01-22-09 12:15 AM
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Should we insist that our trading partners have similar osha type regs, pollution laws and child labor standards that we have? What if they refuse? What if china says, ok we will adopt your laws, but not buy any of your us gov't bonds? This trainwreck has been a long time coming and nothing is going to change because we have an ignorant voter base detached from relality while being mesmorized by Amrican Idol.
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brutis
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01-22-09 12:14 AM
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Aces20: Good old Carrer link. Is it not a A private, non-profut cash cow.
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TheWizardOfOZ
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01-21-09 5:31 PM
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Send them over to Boscov's and MAKE them hire the displaced employees....after all WE just loaned them the money to stay open...ridiculous.
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TheWizardOfOZ
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01-21-09 5:29 PM
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Lets sell some more or our industry to foreign owners who could give a heck about OUR economy, our employees, our country....they can't relate to any of this, and just move on to a better place with no regard to the harm this kind of stuff does to our people and our nation. Get rid of the Big Three and see what happens when the going gets rough...you'll be driving a Chinese bike...and they will be driving the Caddys!
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KlausVR
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01-21-09 1:17 PM
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Actually ... it's Obama's fault! (There, maybe I'm first to blame something concrete on him.)
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BarbaraB
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01-21-09 12:19 PM
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pasatiempo: While there may be lower costs associated with overseas production, the quality is lower as well. Just ask the workers at VeederRoot who are required to reproduce the parts which come into that facility from China. I don't see how it lowers costs to produce the parts twice. I guess the company feels if 4 out of 5 components are okay, they're only paying American wages for one of them. And KlausVR is correct, there aren't environmental regulations and OSHA requirements in the Asian manufacturing industries.
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KlausVR
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01-21-09 11:01 AM
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pasatiempo: you miss the MAIN reasons for shipping those jobs overseas - lack of environmental regulations and lack of OSHA type protections.
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pasatiempo
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01-21-09 10:11 AM
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There are many reasons why manufacturing jobs are leaving our country: lower cost, higher productivity, less battles with labor union reps... we need to take a look at what we as Americans plan to do to save our manufacturing facilities and workers from having their jobs sent overseas! Those in this segment of the market (labor and management) need to decide what they are willing to sacrifice in order to put the US back on the map as an idustrial powerhouse. And they need to do it soon or this is only the begining!
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righty27
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01-21-09 8:39 AM
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Any surprise that a foreign company bought out an american one and now are moving the jobs to China. You could also substitute India or maybe Mexico with China in that sentence.
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Aces20
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01-21-09 8:13 AM
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CareerLink, and the PICCC which operates and works out of the Blair, Centre, and Bedford county CareerLink buildings, are a joke. Easy state employment paychecks with little work and little actual capability for those seeking job placement assistance. Especially if you have a college diploma. Perhaps the FCI administration should speak with Eich and Rendell and seek their own personal bailout.
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livinginBEDROCK
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01-21-09 6:29 AM
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"Setting them up with the unemployment office"...thats pretty funny. Does anyone think there are 150 jobs open in Huntington County right now?
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