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05/22/2007
Another blow for GaylordKimball Electronics to lay off 216 by the end of the year
Martin Niswonger and Matt Cornell, both of Gaylord, learned they will lose their jobs at Kimball Electronics by year’s end. Both want to find new jobs in the area. GAYLORD — Matt Cornell of Gaylord sensed bad news was coming. He was among the 216 employees at Kimball Electronics in Gaylord at a mandatory meeting Monday morning to learn they'll soon lose their jobs. "I had a feeling it was coming. I'm going to stick it out until the end,” he said. Kimball Electronics announced plans to close its factory in the city's industrial park and lay off all employees who don't transfer to other facilities owned by the international company. The first of three waves of layoffs will come in August and the last by year's end, said Martin Vaught, company spokesman at the Indiana headquarters. "I wish it were news of hiring more people and expanding, but this is the time we're living in now,” Vaught said. Cornell, 41, was at a local watering hole Monday afternoon, talking about the impending factory closure with fellow employee Martin Niswonger, 32, of Gaylord. The coworkers both intend to look for other jobs in the area. "It's not like I have to jump out there tomorrow. It looks like I'll at least have the summer,” Niswonger said, adding that he moved from Elk Rapids just a week ago to reduce his drive time to work. Cornell and Niswonger said they hope to avoid joining the ranks of the jobless in Otsego County, with its current 10.2-percent unemployment rate. This news is especially difficult because the area is still reeling from the March 2006 closure of the Georgia-Pacific factory that left more than 200 people without jobs. After that, Kimball Electronics became the largest manufacturing employer in the community, said Joe Duff, city manager. "What this means is we've lost our No. 1 and No. 2 manufacturing employers in the entire county in the last 15 months. There's no positive way to spin this. This will be devastating to Gaylord,” Duff said. Workers at the high-tech factory make electronic components for a variety of uses, including automotive, medical and industrial purposes. After two large contracts were shifted to factories in Asia, the work load in Gaylord steadily declined, Vaught said. "There's not enough business to keep the people or the plant busy. We've worked very, very hard to recruit new business to the Gaylord facility and it has not been successful, unfortunately,” he said. The lost contracts were worth $10 million, a significant loss since the company bought the Gaylord site in December 2006 from Reptron Electronics. All 216 affected workers are able to apply for transfers to other Kimball locations in Jasper, Ind., Tampa, Fla., or a factory in Mexico, Vaught said. Tamara Ward, area manager with Michigan Works, said they've been inundated with laid-off workers from Georgia-Pacific and Cooper-Standard in recent months and now must ready themselves to assist those from Kimball Electronics. "We'll be working to get people back into the work force,” Ward said. "It's a large amount of people to serve.”
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