RockTenn Closing Plant In Shelby (North Carolina), 150 To Lose Jobs

Here is a story of yet another small town factory closing. The Winston-Salem Journal has the details:

Packaging company RockTenn Co. has told state and local officials it will be closing its plant in Shelby, eliminating 150 jobs.

The plant at 662 Washburn Switch Road, which makes containers, is scheduled to close in late April, according to a notice to government officials that the company filed this week.

It is the second plant closing announcement for RockTenn in the past six weeks. It said on Feb. 29 it was closing a containerboard plant in the Canadian province of Quebec that the company idled in January. About 100 people worked at the plant.

RockTenn, which is based in Norcross, Ga., bought the mill in May as part of its purchase of Smurfit-Stone. The mill produced about 176,000 tons of product a year.

Sounds like these Bastards bought the plant without any intention of keeping it in operation. Of course, taking over the competition and shutting it down is a grand old American business tradition going all the way back to The Gilded Age. More than one hundred years ago, Republican President Teddy Roosevelt launched the federal government's war to put an end to such monopolization. Today, under Democratic President Barack Obama, we just bend over and take it.


Bonus: Can we change? It's too late