SMC Plant closing in Sioux Falls, SD

[jinman]

I just saw this linked AP story via Yahoo!. It means 85 people out of work as the factory will close. SMC manufactures backhoes and loaders.

Here is a link to the Alamo-SMC website.

 

[jonyyuma]

Rats, Another plant closing, what happened to the Relief?? I know they were sick when the news was dumped at their feet?

 

[creekbend]

This is another example that the economic downward spiral is continuing and it doesn't appear that relief will happen anytime soon. What will the future hold for the working force in this Country? It doesn't look Rosy.

 

[dmccarty]

There is a Caterpillar plant south of us. They did some layoffs years ago and I worried they were eventually going to close down.

They recently announced that they were expanding the plant and adding 400ish jobs. :thumbsup: I think there is another plant NW of us that was expanding as well. Caterpillar is doing well with overseas sales in developing countries and even in developed countries as companies replace old equipment.

Business Week said,

The company is continuing to add jobs -- nearly 5,000 between June and September alone. As of Sept. 30, it had about 149,000 employees, up more than 20 percent from a year earlier, including staff gained from acquisitions. About 5,600 of those jobs were added in the United States, where unemployment remains stuck at slightly more than 9 percent.

I surely wish other US companies were hiring in the US.

Later,
Dan

 

[jonyyuma]

That is good news about Cat. Our VP met with us , and the pronosis is that a very slow climb back THRU 2012.. Election time ring any bells? Believe it or not Chinese business is slowing too?

 

[rtimgray]

The manufacturing facility that I work at has been expanding and updating equipment aggressively for the last three years, adding 200,000 sq.ft. of warehouse/manufacturing area, etc.

Our problem: We can't get people to come to work. We have roughly 600-650 employees in a 3-shift, 24/7 manufacturing operation. In any given month, we hire roughly 30 people and can never get caught up.

In my opinion, we are good place to work ($12-$14/hour for someone with a high school diploma, GED or able to pass an equivalency test, who is drug free), good insurance benefits, vacation/holidays, 401k program, etc. If you stay around for 6 months,you can go into a "pay for skill" program that will get you to the $18-$20/hour range within two years. However, our turnover is attrocious. We are in a relatively rural area and have largely exhausted our worker pool. The only new ones we get are from high school graduation.

 

[LD1]

Thats bad news.

The place where I work just announced they are stopping production on 2 or our 4 lines. And it will affect 48 of our 148 people.

They are ironing out the details for a severance package/early retirement since 75 of those 148 have been at the facility for the entire 34 years it has been there.

Hoping 48 will volunteer an no one will be "forced" out of work. I am pretty near the bottom, but I am in a "skilled trade" department and not just production. So who knows how they will handle us???

This facility has NEVER had a lay-off before. And it realy makes me wonder just how long the place will last with production cut 50%. Because that WONT cut costs by 50%, therefore cost per unit is going to go up BIG TIME.

Deffinatally a tough time in this economy.

 

[5030]

Key words in any employment situation is 'drug free' and 'willing to work', to rare commodities in today's entitlement society an d drug consuming culture....

I listen to the gloomy unemployment figures the media blows about but I know the undelying factors of why. The above 2 parameters rule out a large percentage of the work force and those 'individuals' would rather be on the 'government dole' anyway.

I say put 'em to work fixing roads....by hand. Reinstate WPA.

 

[RickB]

The Alamo Group has accumulated the loader lines from Bush Hog, SMC, and Great Bend and maybe others that I am unaware of. They probably have 4 times the manufacturing capacity to build FEL's than the market is demanding right now.

 

[300UGUY]

The Alamo Group has accumulated the loader lines from Bush Hog, SMC, and Great Bend and maybe others that I am unaware of. They probably have 4 times the manufacturing capacity to build FEL's than the market is demanding right now.

Couple that with the increased productivity of new equipment, and jobs are going to be hard to come by. In my old plant, robots and cnc machines replaced workers faster than they could retire, the corp required a minimum of 5% cost reduction per year. In our case a engine plant went from over 2K workers to less than 700, producing the same number of engines. I would be surprised if manufacturing ever really adds jobs in this country.