DANVILLE, IL--September 13, 2003-- Vermilion County Job Training Partnership Program officials have been poised to help employees who are losing their jobs in the Grist Mill and Eagle Country Market closings.

Now they're also preparing to help employees who will be out of work when another Danville manufacturing plant closes this year.

Jackson Plastics Inc. employees said they were told late last week the plant at 3403 Lynch Creek Drive would close in the next 1 to two months. Jackson Plastics President Henry Jackson and other company officials did not return phone calls.

"We've had three closings announced in the last few weeks," said Renee Poke, JTP's executive director. "We're gearing up for all three of them. Our services and the services of many agencies will be available to them. The bottom line is to help the workers get back to work."

 

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The Nicholasville, Ky.-based company built a 50,000-square-foot facility on 22 acres in the Eastgate Industrial Area in the fall of 1999. When it began production in January 2000, officials estimated it would manufacture about 15 million injection-molded automotive trim parts such as console pieces, door panels, bumper guards and steering column covers per year.

The firm also leased 30,000 square feet in the former Federal Express building on East Voorhees Street for storage.

Vicki Stewart, president of Vermilion Advantage, said she just learned of the closing last weekend through news reports.

"The local plant management left a couple of months ago," she said. "The interim work force chose not to return our phone calls so we have not had the opportunity to work with them for a couple of months."

Stewart said the plant employed 107 workers earlier this year.

Because the plant employs more than 50, Poke said, the firm's management must send a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN notice, to state labor officials. Then, she said, the officials will try to notify them within 48 hours that they can offer support to the displaced workers.

"They usually try to have an on-site meeting with the management and union reps," Poke said. "The initial meeting is a question-and-answer time."

Then a team of community-based organizations, including JTP, will hold a pre-layoff workshop for the employees to explain, among other things, unemployment benefits, retraining and other services that are available to them.

Poke said that although ConAgra's Grist Mill in Danville was scheduled to close in August, some employees are still there working to shut down the plant. About 40 to 45 employees will be laid off when Eagle in Tilton closes later this month.

"We will be ready for them," Poke said, adding JTP staff had an initial meeting with Eagle employees last week.

"Unfortunately, we're finding more and more people that are getting laid off in the closings have had this happen four or five or six times," she continued, adding they are frustrated with the instability. "That's like the people at (Jackson Plastics). They barely had four years of solid employment, and now they're looking for a new job. We get people who feel like they just want to throw their hands up."

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