Plant's closing to hit entire community hard (Indiana - 800 jobs)

Plant's closing to hit entire community hard
800 workers worry about joblessness; businesses, nonprofits will feel aftershocks
By Jason Thomas
September 23, 2003

FRANKLIN, Ind. -- Talk of early retirement and collecting unemployment was as thick as the cigarette smoke Monday at the Corner Cafe, just a few blocks west of ArvinMeritor.

Gary Brown, 54, has seen plenty in his 36 years as a tool and die maker at the factory.

"A lot of people have put in a lot. A lot of people are going to lose a lot," he said. "It's a shame. I've seen a lot of people come and go."

Down Province Street, employees shuffled in and out of the factory, red coolers and lunchboxes in tow.

For now, there is work to be done.

Company brass is expected to announce Wednesday that the 68-year-old plant is closing, a move that would eliminate 800 jobs. ArvinMeritor is Johnson County's largest industrial employer.

Like everyone else, Toby Daggett, 39, has bills to pay. He also has a 3-month-old daughter, Ebony, to support.

http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/7/077105-3547-092.html

do you think good, ole Republican Indiana will go Dem in '04? Or do you think the republican ideology is holding on even in these communities?

I hear the mid-west is getting economically raped with layoffs. Does Indiana have the bread lines that you are seeing in Michigan and Ohio?

Even if O'Bannon had not died, the chances of Indiana going Democrat in 2004 were very slim. The Lt. Gov., Joe Kernan, announced some time ago that he would not run for governor, and the only Democratic candidates I can think of are from Bloomington (the mayor and a state congressman).

Then, there's the fact that Democratic presidential candidates simply do not do anything resembling campaigning here. Maybe a quick stop at the Indy airport, then they get out. I don't remember a single campaign commercial from Gore during the 2000 election; but there were plenty in support of Bush.

Thank you, electoral politics, for causing states like mine to be blown off...

I read that bush has a 17 point drop in
the support of white men in the last month.
It is said that the reason is all the job
losses.