Posted 1:40 am Friday, February 03, 2012
Carrier Closing Plant In 2013
By CASEY MURPHY
Business Editor
Business Editor
After negotiating with union members, Carrier Corp. will move forward with shuttering its Tyler plant, company representatives said Thursday.
"Carrier has completed the bargaining process with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, and we will move forward with the closure of the Tyler plant," said Michelle Caldwell, communications manager for Carrier's residential headquarters in Indianapolis. "The bargaining process says that we are not allowed to disclose any of the negotiations (with union members) or what the results were."
On Jan. 20, Carrier officials told employees it could close its Tyler plant by late 2013 or early 2014, eliminating hundreds of jobs with an economic impact into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Ms. Caldwell said Thursday she had no specific dates on when employees could start getting laid off from the Tyler facility.
"It will continue operations and serve customers through the end of 2013," she said.
Tyler Economic Development Council President and CEO Tom Mullins said Thursday that company officials and union members agreed on a severance package that involves some kind of combination of a one-time settlement related to the number of years an employee has worked there and with benefits given for a period of time after they leave Carrier.
He said employee layoffs will be done gradually over the next couple of years and most likely will start late this summer.
Mullins said local management has not been authorized to talk to anybody in Tyler about what is going on. He said news of the plant closure is very disappointing, but he still wants the opportunity to bring local leaders to talk with Carrier representatives.
Representatives from the city of Tyler, Smith County and the Tyler Economic Development Council had planned to meet with Carrier representatives, but Carrier cancelled the meeting, needing more time to work on the details of the severance package, Mullins said. They plan to reschedule the meeting soon, he added.
Mullins said they want to have the meeting in Tyler but want to meet with Carrier officials even if they have to go to their corporate headquarters.
"One way or another, we're going to find a way to have a conversation with local and national management and see what, if anything, can be done to extend the life of this plant or to repurpose this plant and see if there is anything they would consider putting in here that we could help them with."
Local union officials could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Ms. Caldwell has said about 500 employees, including transportation positions, could be affected if the Tyler facility is shuttered.
Mullins said Carrier has 405 employees at its two facilities in Tyler. Positions vary from assembly to distribution and engineering to administrative, he said.
Tyler's facilities include a manufacturing operation on Duncan Street and a distribution center on Robertson Road.
Mullins compared what possible effect Carrier's closure could have on the local economy to an impact analysis conducted of the Goodyear plant closing.
Goodyear had 1,000 employees and caused a nearly $1 billion-per-year impact statewide, with most of that money coming into the Tyler area, Mullins said. Carrier would be about 40 percent of that effect, so he estimated its yearly impact to be $400 million to $500 million on the local economy.
"They've told us for years that (Carrier's) labor costs at this plant are their highest labor costs in the country because this is one of their oldest plants," he said.
Carrier has opened and expanded a plant in Monterrey, Mexico, to cut costs.
"They've been planning to move more production in Mexico for several years," Mullins said, adding that the company already has moved four or five production lines there and has another production line scheduled to move there this month.
"We have to continually evaluate our operational improvement opportunities across the business, and in light of the challenging market conditions our industry continues to face, it creates issues," Ms. Caldwell said of why the decision was made for the possible closure.
Separation benefits, including access to Carrier's United Technologies Employee Scholar Program, will be available to eligible employees who are affected, she said. As part of the scholar program, employees can receive fully paid tuition, books and fees for up to four years at colleges and universities.
Since 1902, Carrier has provided air conditioning, heating and refrigeration systems.
A wholly owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., Carrier delivers global solutions across the broadest range of heating, cooling and refrigeration applications, according to www.corp.carrier.com.
The Carrier Corp. factory on Duncan Street in Tyler opened in 1946 as Bryant Heater Co. of Cleveland and had about 250 employees manufacturing water heaters. In 1949, Bryant and two sister companies, Day & Night and Payne, bought themselves out of Dresser and formed Affiliated Gas Equipment Inc. Carrier, the world's largest manufacturer of heating and air- conditioning systems, purchased AGE in 1955, according to earlier reports.
In the mid-1960s, production shifted from water heaters and furnaces to Carrier's food freezers. Tyler became a branch operation of Carrier Air Conditioning Co. in 1964. In 1969, Carrier broke ground on a $6 million expansion that doubled the size of the factory to its current dimensions. Completed in 1970, the project added hundreds of jobs.
Carrier was purchased by United Technologies Corp. in 1979. In 1984, Carrier announced plans for a 303,000-square-foot distribution center in Tyler Industrial Park featuring an 80-bay dock. The center ships goods from the Tyler factory. In 1992, the plant added 250 to 300 jobs as part of a company consolidation and boosted employment to about 1,000. There has since been downsizing as production lines have been relocated to Mexico.
Staff Writer Dayna Worchel contributed to this report.
