VERY DEPRESSING

[SchemerBob]

Just heard today that the Rubbermaid plant in Centerville, IA is closing. Over 500 people will loose their jobs. There is a shortline railroad that serves the plant (Appanoose County Community Railroad). Since Rubbermaid is their biggest costomer, I assume it will probably die off as well. The line links Centerville with the BNSF in Albia via old Burlington Northern, Rock Island, and Norfolk Southern trackage. Every July the railroad has excursion rides. The plant is supposed to close this summer. Maybe I'll be able to ride the excursion train one last time. I would be real suprised if this shortline can survive after Rubbermaid is gone. [:(]

[CMSTPP]

Sorry to hear about that. It's to bad if one company supplies a railroad and then it goes out of business leaving the railroad nothing to haul. Thats is pretty sad.

James

[tree68]

Sounds like another off-shore move....

[eolafan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

Sounds like another off-shore move....

Off shore? No, but out of country, YES. VIVA MEXICO! They get us coming or going!
[:(!]

[Anonymous]

That is depressing. While I lived in Cedar Rapids I made a trip down to Centreville
to photo the APNC. I called the railroad a few days before and asked if there was a
good place to shoot and the lady said they'd leave the GP parked outside the
engine shed for my convenience. Now that's some nice people for you. I got some
great shots of their high-nose GP7 and I've got one framed on my wall. That's also
the first (and last) time I ever tried a Maid-Rite sandwich there in town (not my kinda
sandwich but I had to try it).

[Lord Atmo]

i hate when shortlines disappear. if only BNSF could supply those people with jobs on their railroad. maybe if they're lucky, they'll find a new customer. anyone who is that generous to railfans should NEVER go out of business

[rrandb]

May be someone will buy the plant and use it for something that generates rail traffic?

[jeffhergert]

Just heard the local news talking about the closing. Jobs are moving to a Kansas facility and 150 jobs at the Kansas location will be offered to anyone willing to transfer. At least the jobs aren't going out of the US. Yet.

They interviewed someone from the APNC. He said 75% of their revenues came from Rubbermaid. He said it will be a big blow to them but they expect to survive. Of course, what else can he say?

Jeff

[upchuck]

QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

Sounds like another off-shore move....

Off shore? No, but out of country, YES. VIVA MEXICO! They get us coming or going!
[:(!]

[%-)]Great...they send us illegals....we send them jobs...[banghead]

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by upchuck

QUOTE: Originally posted by eolafan

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

Sounds like another off-shore move....

Off shore? No, but out of country, YES. VIVA MEXICO! They get us coming or going!
[:(!]

[%-)]Great...they send us illegals....we send them jobs...[banghead]

and just think...they are all here to "work" funny how all the jobs are down THERE but they are HERE to work... yea right...
csx engineer

[fuzzybroken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

QUOTE: Originally posted by upchuck

[%-)]Great...they send us illegals....we send them jobs...[banghead]

and just think...they are all here to "work" funny how all the jobs are down THERE but they are HERE to work... yea right...
csx engineer

So if the illegal immigrants are coming here, and the jobs are going there, what the heck are all the illegal immigrants going to do? [banghead]

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by fuzzybroken

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98

QUOTE: Originally posted by upchuck

[%-)]Great...they send us illegals....we send them jobs...[banghead]

and just think...they are all here to "work" funny how all the jobs are down THERE but they are HERE to work... yea right...
csx engineer

So if the illegal immigrants are coming here, and the jobs are going there, what the heck are all the illegal immigrants going to do? [banghead]

thats an EZ one... they come here... and collect the welfar check.... as well as all the "free" healthcare....
csx engineer

[Junctionfan]

Time to do a boycot on Rubbermaid products than-clearly they are anti American and unworthy of American money. Let the Mexican people buy their products.

[csxns]

CSX engineer you are right and the best engineer CSX has next to my friend that works the yard at Charlotte.

[route_rock]

APNC is owned by the County. I dont think they will have a problem staying open. Tax breaks for someone to move to that building and voila!Also we do give them tons of buisness at BNSF. I do believe there is a loco rebuild shop on their line in Albia.

[Anonymous]

Yes they do have a re-building Shop at Albia on there own line but Relco owns it.

[jimrice4449]

Junctionfan, read the posts! The plant is moving to Kansas, considerably north of the Rio Grande and Iowa employees willing to relocate will transfer.

[csxengineer98]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxns

CSX engineer you are right and the best engineer CSX has next to my friend that works the yard at Charlotte.

i dont know if i should be taking that as a compliment or not...lol.. since i strive to do as little as humanly possable while on duty..lol after all..from the top down, csx is a melting pot of meetiocroty (sp)... they dont pay you to go above and beyond the call of duty, becouse if you do it once..they expect it out of you for the rest of your railroad carrier..lol
csx engineer

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by csxengineer98
after all..from the top down, csx is a melting pot of meetiocroty (sp)... csx engineer

I'm sure by "best," he meant most mediocre! [:D]

[scottychaos]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Time to do a boycot on Rubbermaid products than-clearly they are anti American and unworthy of American money. Let the Mexican people buy their products.

Its not Rubbermaids fault, or their choice..
its because of Walmart.
Walmart is forcing Rubbermaid to move these jobs out of the US..
because Walmart demands that rubbermaid (and lots of companys) sell to them (Walmart) at lower and lower prices..the companys are forced to use cheaper (non-US) labor to meet Walmart's price demands..
and if Walmart is your largest buyer, you have to do what Walmart demands or go out of business..
So these companys, like Rubbermaid, are forced to go with cheaper labor just to stay in business..
because Americans demand cheap junk at Walmart..
so boycott Walmart..not Rubbermaid.

google "walmart rubbermaid" (without the quotes)
and you can read tons about this..

Scot

[chicagorails]

if the founder of walmart was still alive sam walton, he would not stand for shutdown of rubbermaide!!! the newer generation does it again!!!

[eolafan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by scottychaos

QUOTE: Originally posted by Junctionfan

Time to do a boycot on Rubbermaid products than-clearly they are anti American and unworthy of American money. Let the Mexican people buy their products.

Its not Rubbermaids fault, or their choice..
its because of Walmart.
Walmart is forcing Rubbermaid to move these jobs out of the US..
because Walmart demands that rubbermaid (and lots of companys) sell to them (Walmart) at lower and lower prices..the companys are forced to use cheaper (non-US) labor to meet Walmart's price demands..
and if Walmart is your largest buyer, you have to do what Walmart demands or go out of business..
So these companys, like Rubbermaid, are forced to go with cheaper labor just to stay in business..
because Americans demand cheap junk at Walmart..
so boycott Walmart..not Rubbermaid.

google "walmart rubbermaid" (without the quotes)
and you can read tons about this..

Scot

I agree entirely with Scot...the company I work for has made its products in the U.S. for over 75 years and now our competition is bringing in Chinese made products that are much cheaper than our U.S. made ones (and lower quality to boot), but the customers are demanding less expensive prodcuts so our company just opened a plant in (you guessed it) China. So far no U.S. jobs have been lost as a result of this but who knows what the future will bring?

[jeffhergert]

Unless there has been some new news that I haven't heard, Rubbermaid isn't sending these jobs out of the country. At least not at this time.

Iowa recently has been hit by quite a few manufacturing plant closings or announcement of impending closings. A few are large like Whirlpool/Maytag. Some medium like Rubbermaid. Most are small (50 or less employees).

Some of the larger companies are sending jobs out of the country, with a few jobs transferred to other US sites. Many of the medium sized and smaller companies are just consolidating manufacturing from many to a few plants in the US. They are getting rid of "excess capacity" to cut costs. Some places are winners, some (like Iowa locations) are losers. The state tried to entice many of the large and medium operations with incentives to stay. Either other locations were offering more or the companies just were not interested in staying. (Some companies said no matter what incentives were offered, it couldn't be enough for long term viability of their Iowa plants. If that is true, we should be grateful for their honesty instead of them milking all they could from taxpayers and then leaving in a few years anyway.)

Not to defend Walmart or any other large corporation, but it's not their fault for the shift of jobs from high wage to low wage states, or to other countries. The fault lies with us, the consumer or the stockholder.

We want to pay as little as possible for products we buy. Some have no real choice. The jobs they have don't pay as much as they should or maybe once did. They almost have to buy as cheap as possible to make ends meet. Begins the cycle of cheaper products and lower wages to make those products cheaper.

If we own stock in a company, we want the best possible return on our investments. Many times labor is one place that cost cuts can be made. Get the work force to take pay cuts (more future Walmart shoppers), get rid of the present work force and replace with cheaper workers, or send the jobs to other countries that in addition to cheap labor may have other economic benefits such as in environmental or tax laws that don't exist or aren't enforced.

There are far too many people who don't really care that industrial blue collar jobs are being lost. Too many look down on jobs that are more physical than mental. They think if you work in a factory ,or construction, etc the most you should be paid is minimum wage (and they think that's too much). They refer to these jobs as "Jobs Americans won't do." What they really mean is "Jobs, they themselves, would never lower themselves to do." Anyway, it's just an excuse to either import cheaper labor or export the jobs to the areas of cheaper labor.

As long as some of these and other attitudes remain, blue collar jobs that helped to build the middle class will continue to be lost.

Just my thoughts, even if off topic.
Jeff