The news today that Milwaukee Electric Tool will close its doors by the end of next year is, of course, disappointing, and sad.
At least it's not a big surprise. Several months ago, the company announced that it might close the plant — a pretty sure sign of what was to come. And for years, there have been reports of the company cutting jobs, adding jobs, pulling out, coming back, only to pull out again.
But foreseen or not, it is disappointing. For one thing, there's the 350 or so employees who will be directly effected by the decision. And then there's the impact on the community — not only losing 350 jobs, but losing a company that had been a good corporate citizen in the community.
The consolation, if you're looking for one, is that Milwaukee Tool's move comes on the heels of several good things on the economic development front. PIZO announced plans several weeks ago to bring 45 high-paying jobs to the area. And other new plants, such as Atlas Tube and Roll Coater, have begun operations in the last year or so.
The whole affair offers yet another reminder of the importance for community economic developers to be ever-vigilant in their quest to being new jobs to the area. It's a fact of economic development life that plants come, and plants go. Communities that thrive are the ones that are able to replace the jobs that leave. The good news is that economic developers in Mississippi County — armed with the quarter-cent sales tax approved by voters several years ago — are apparently staying vigilant. There seems to be a steady stream of rumors and reports of companies that are looking at this area.
Today's announcement only strengthened our desire to reel another one of these prospects in soon.
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