Garcy Plant in Piedmont, Alabama to Close, 115 Jobs Lost

image: Piedmont, Alabama's hometown is likely about to become a little bit deader.

President Hopey-Changey's State of the Union speech last night not withstanding, the steady loss of American manufacturing jobs and the resulting devastation to blue collar communities everywhere continues. Here is the Anniston Star with yet another tale of woe:

Workers at Garcy Corporation in Piedmont were told Friday that the manufacturing plant would close by June.

The following Monday, more than a dozen Garcy workers met with local leaders to discuss what can be done to save the 115 or so jobs that will be lost beginning with the first layoffs, scheduled for March.

Garcy, owned by parent company Legget & Platt, manufactures store fixtures for retailers such as Aeropostale and Old Navy. News of the closing hit workers hard at the 35-year-old facility.

Charles Thacker has worked at Garcy for 14 years. His fiancée works there as well. He said the prospect of losing two jobs in the same household is hard to swallow. When asked what his plans are, he had no easy answer.

“I’m fixing to turn 47 so I don’t know. I have no clue. There’s no jobs anywhere,” Thacker said of the difficulty in finding work in the current economic climate. “We were fixing to get married, and we might have to postpone that. We don't know yet.”

Legget & Platt isn’t talking much about the closing, but in a press release last week the company said: “the decision to close the Piedmont facility is in no way related to the abilities or productivity of the employees at the local facility.”

The closing, the press release went on to say, is the result of a consolidation of similar operations within the company.

In other words, business is bad and we don't expect it to bounce back anytime soon, so we're cutting our losses.

Sometimes these small town newspapers do a better job when reporting these stories than their big city counterparts. In this instance, the article spells out the local factory closing trend:

So many closings in one small town

The Standard Coosa-Thatcher Cotton Mill now stands in the middle of town as a reminder of the almost 100 years the mill provided jobs for Piedmont. The mill closed in 2001.

Seven years later, Springs Industries – a major supplier of bedding to large retailers – closed its Piedmont plants, leaving 325 employees out of work. Springs moved their production to the Reynosa, Mexico.

For the record, according to Wikipedia, Piedmont's population is just a little over 5,000.


Bonus: Drive by Truckers pay tribute to The Three Great Alabama Icons