Bombardier To Shut Down Factory

[Lyon_Wonder]

Bombardier To Shut Down Its Factory in Auburn
Local employees were expecting layoffs
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
By Dave Tobin and David L. Shaw
Staff writers

http://www.syracuse.com/news/poststandard/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1138701345116100.xml&coll=1

Bombardier's huge Auburn Technology plant at the corner of Orchard and Columbus streets was quiet Monday afternoon. In a few months, it will be quiet for good.

William Spurr, president of Bombardier Transportation, North America, told employees their plant would likely close by spring. Then he sent the 160 employees home early, with two days of paid leave. Employees can return to work Thursday.

"We expect to close between April and June," said Spurr. "We don't see a way out. We did look for many alternatives over the last months, trying to bring a solution that would not require us closing."
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Federal labor law requires a 60-day notice before a plant can close.

The announcement stunned employees, who suspected layoffs, knowing that production contracts for Metro North and Long Island Railroad cars were winding down.

"It was a shock to all of us," said Joseph Bennett, president of Local 3482 of the United Steelworkers of American union, which represents 128 employees. "We thought there might be some layoffs, but we weren't expecting this kick in the butt."

Bennett, a second-generation worker at the plant, started working there 31 years ago, when there were more than 1,200 employees. The plant sits on 15.7 acres.

The factory had had several owners in its 120-year history. At one time nearly 2,000 were employed there.

Most current employees averaged 12 to 15 years of tenure, said Bennett, with some of them third-generation employees. Wages ranged from $10 to $22 an hour.

"This is not about wages," said David Slack, a company spokesman. "This is about workload. It's hitting all five of our North American sites, and Auburn is the most serious."

Just two and a half years ago, Bombardier officials and area elected officials gathered at the Auburn plant, celebrating a $2 million retooling and training investment, and the plant's new status as Bombardier's "Center for Expertise for Bogie Manufacturing."

Bogies are undercarriage frames for railroad cars. Auburn was the only Bombardier plant in North American that manufactured bogies, which would be shipped to a Bombardier plant in Plattsburgh, where they were assembled with wheels, braking and propulsion systems.

At the time, Bombardier was bidding on a big, long-term, rail car contract for the Port Authority of New York. It lost that contract to Kawasaki.

"We were hoping for great things," said Spurr.

The Auburn plant also made aerospace parts no longer needed by Bombardier.

Timothy C. Lattimore, Auburn mayor, said local state and federal officials had tried to help Bombardier get business and remain in Auburn. He plans to explore locating start-up businesses in the huge plant, where the main building alone is 144,000 square feet.

"It's a nice manufacturing site with rail, water, sewer, roads and utilities," he said.

Spurr said he was unsure about the building's future.

Bombardier and union officials will be negotiating a retention incentive package, to encourage employees to stay and complete work at the plant, said Spurr. Severance and retraining packages will also be offered, after company officials work out details with union officials.

Bombardier is using only a fraction of the cavernous building, which makes it the smallest of Bombardier Transportation's five North American plants.

"Each of our (five North American) sites will likely be affected sometime this year, said Slack.

Although the Auburn plant did "quite well" in 2005, it could not be retooled for other manufacturing "without a lot of investment," said Spurr.

Bombardier employees will have the next two days to process the end of their jobs, the end of an era.

"It's a shock. We understand that," said Slack. "This isn't easy for anybody."

[Modelcar]

....This kind of news all over our country {each day}, is alarming.....I don't know how long this can go until it will be too late to take some kind of action to try to correct our position in the manufacturing world....It seems to be every day...word of contracts being lost to subsidized foreign competitors and the "free trade" conditions that now exist in agreements....Seems we can't be competitive even with trade anymore....!
China is coming and coming fast......It's alarming for sure. GM announcing today of more drastic cutbacks with payout to employees, dividends, etc.....and benefits, where will it lead us to.....We...collectively better start to take the bull by the horns or the bull will be taking us.....

[Anonymous]

I dunno how the Chinese got involved with this, the major Asian passenger car builders are Japanese own (Kawasaki). And Bombardier isn't even an American company, i believe they are either French or Canadian.

I personally think that Bombardier's seemingly excessive capacity was the result of a belief that there would be a boom in the development of high speed intercity trains in the USA following on the heels of the Acela Express. Obviously, 5 years after the launch of the Acela Express, we are no closer to establishing any ither high speed corridors anywhere in this country outside of the Northeast Corridor. There is no market for passenger rail equipment in North America. Demand for passenger equipment is sporadic at best. Bombardier took a gamble and lost.

[Anonymous]

Kawasaki builds the rail cars at their Yonkers, New York plant.

The contract added 300 more jobs to the plant.

Greg

[Tulyar15]

I think Bombardier have got over capacity world wide at the moment. They own the former British Rail Engineering Plant at Derby, England. Following a boom in orders for their Electrostar trains to replace all the old slam door EMU;s on what was the Southern Region of British Rail things have gone quiet. London Underground have ordered some new trains from them but it will be 18 months before things start to happen with that order.

Bombardier hoped to get order for the new Domestic Channel Tunnel Rail Link trains and for some DMU's for the Irish Republic; but both of these orders went to the Japanese firm Kawasaki. At the moment the only hope for Bombardier is if they get a new, small order for extra DMU;s from Wales and Borders.

[owlsroost]

QUOTE: I dunno how the Chinese got involved with this, the major Asian passenger car builders are Japanese own (Kawasaki). And Bombardier isn't even an American company, i believe they are either French or Canadian.

Bombardier is headquartered in Canada, but has major locomotive, passenger car and light rail manufacturing operations worldwide (particularly in Europe after the acquisition of Adtranz in 2001) - it claims to be the "world leader in the rail equipment manufacturing and servicing industry".

http://www.bombardier.com/index.jsp

Tony

[Modelcar]

DJL....If you are referring to my Chinese comment...I simply meant of our world position on producing goods in this country and we're fast becoming non-competitive...to many foreign nations, especially China...Just look at the goods in stores...

[AntonioFP45]

A sad day indeed.

I was assumng that Amtrak, inspite of the threats of being shtdown, will continue and will have to replace those aging "Amcans".

[Anonymous]

Yes, there definately is an issue regarding the manufacturing of goods in China as oppose to here. With free trade treaties and such, that definately is bad for us. But such a subject is for another day. Most North American railway equipment is manufactured here either by choice or agencies have forced them to manufacture them here. The Acela Express contract stipulated that the trainsets be built in America (or at least assembled). The failed New York State Turboliner rebuild also had a similar requirement. I think if passenger rail agencies maintains that sort of policy, at least passenger rail manufacturing in the US should be ok in terms of providing jobs for Americans. Providing them with steady work is another issue.

As for Amtrak's "Amcans", i believe the Capstone rebuild program is extending their life by another 10-15 years or so. I would love for Amtrak to replace them. They're nice looking on the outside, I'm not too much a of fan for riding in them.

[Modelcar]

....The units we rode in a few years ago out of Johnstown {east}, I thought rode just fine...Down in Florida too....From Deland south to Orlando.

[PBenham]

Auburn did not need that! Thank you George Pataki, Sheldon Silver and Joe Bruno!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Modelcar

....This kind of news all over our country {each day}, is alarming.....I don't know how long this can go until it will be too late to take some kind of action to try to correct our position in the manufacturing world....It seems to be every day...word of contracts being lost to subsidized foreign competitors and the "free trade" conditions that now exist in agreements....Seems we can't be competitive even with trade anymore....!
China is coming and coming fast......It's alarming for sure. GM announcing today of more drastic cutbacks with payout to employees, dividends, etc.....and benefits, where will it lead us to.....We...collectively better start to take the bull by the horns or the bull will be taking us.....

A hearty hell yeah to you Model Car...............