USA: Workers’ feedback to the Cargil’s closing of Jefferson Junction malting plant

Dale Kylmanen union president stated the following concerning the announcement from parent company Cargill that it is closing its Jefferson Junction Ladish malting plant:"No matter how much you anticipate something like this, when it comes down to reality, it's shocking and it will take awhile to sink in", according to the Daily Times.

Union brethren together with Kylmanen are facing termination at Ladish this October. The plant has been processing malt for beer since 1870. Kylmanen said there are 51 people in the Ladish union and the plant has a total of 74 employees. He said opinions of the union members on the plant closing run the gamut.

"There were a number of people planning to retire anyway, so this certainly didn't shatter their plans or their lives in any way, but they certainly didn't want to go out like this," Kylmanen said. "Nobody is angry, but it's frustrating and upsetting, and it will take some time to sink in."

Officials from Cargill stated last week they are being forced to close the plant for economic reasons. They cited an overabundance of malt in an environment of decreased demand. Cargill will focus its operations currently being performed in Jefferson at two of its other U.S. plants.

Kylmanen said the union could see the closing coming." There has been a lot of talk that this was a possibility," he said. "Cargill has been finding it tremendously hard to try to find customers, to try to drum up business. Things just didn't pan out," Kylmanen said. "The economy, in general, is suffering, I think, and not just in the malting industry. It seems that any time you pick up a newspaper plants are closing, people are being laid off, or jobs are going overseas to other countries. Obviously, it's frustrating, and it affects everyone. And in our case, it's not that our jobs are going overseas, it's that demand is going down."

Kylmanen stated that America's recent obsession with low-carb diets led to low-carb, light beers that use less malt."And the giants like Miller and Bud have developed methods where they can get the same quality product with less ingredients, and that has been a huge factor, along with other malt houses that have sprung up," he said. "So there are too many malt houses and not enough demand. That is the bottom line."

Kylmanen said Ladish's Jefferson plant will likely cease operations sometime between Oct. 17 and 31, two months earlier than the union expected. He said it is possible that Cargill will retain six employees briefly at the plant after that to ship out the remainder of the barley and to perform maintenance.Kylmanen said severance packages for employees have yet to be discussed. Those meetings are scheduled for September. 2.

Dennis Bieck is the union's vice president. He said he isn't sure what he's going to do after working at the plant for the past 35 years. He said it is about the only job he's ever had."I was thinking about going back to school, but we have some loose ends we have to tie up at the plant and I have my mind on that right now," he said.

Bieck said the union has what he termed a predominantly "older workforce.""We have 25 people with 30 or more years in," he said. "Some will go for early retirement and that is an option for me, but I'd rather not do that if don't have to. But it's hard when most of us are over age 50 now, and going back to school and hitting the old workforce again is difficult."

Bieck said Cargill is helping employees through their transitional period to different employment. A company statement reads, "Employees will be provided outplacement support that includes contracted, professional consulting services to assist them in building skills in interviewing techniques, resume writing, networking, and understanding how to negotiate compensation.

"They are going to help us," Bieck said. "They brought in people from Brookfield to help us look for jobs, set up resumes and teach us more about interviews and, hopefully, they will help us get placed somewhere around here."Kylmanen has spent the past 32 years of his life at the Ladish plant. He worked in the drying area near the kilns, in production. At the age of 54, he had planned to work another eight years, until he turned 62.

"I had a ways to go to retirement," he said, adding he has some ideas about how he can continue to work until that age, but with a 2-year-old grandson in the Jefferson area, he's not thrilled with relocating to find work. "When you've been working for a company for 32 years and all of a sudden you have to switch gears, it's tough," he said. "I have some ideas. But for now, I'm not sure. My kids are grown, so it's my wife and I, so I have some flexibility if I need to relocate. It's not my favourite idea, my grandson is the joy of my life right now, so it's hard to move away from that ... I think everybody in the union is just sad and upset. Who can you be angry at? It's just the whole economy. So you just suck it up and life goes on. Maybe there will be a silver lining in this somewhere."

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