USA – 386 Jobless, Two Die Casting Companies Ready to Close
Category: Daily News

Pace Industries, Quad City suffering from weak consumer demand. Two more nonferrous diecasting plants are set to close in the coming weeks, and in both cases the shutdowns are attributed to the overall weak economic conditions. Aluminum diecasting was among the first industrial market segments to feel the effects of the automotive industry’s sharp decline in 2008. Lately, plants that supply diecastings to general industrial, commercial, and consumer markets are feeling the effects of generally weak demand.

Pace Industries will close its Monroe City, MO, plant in July, following a notice to employees earlier this month. The plant is one of 19 operations for the company, which produces machined and finished diecastings and assemblies to manufacturers of automobiles, appliances, and commercial and consumer products.

Last year Leggett & Platt Inc. sold Pace to Kenner Industries and a team of company managers. Kenner had owned the group until it sold Pace to Leggett & Platt in 1996. Reportedly, Pace Industries has endured a 30-50% decline in sales revenue in recent earnings periods. The Monroe City plant produces aluminum and zinc diecastings, and employs 147 workers and 39 managers and clerical staff.

Quad City Die Casting Co. will close its Moline, IL, plant in July, another move attributed to depressed market demand. It produces aluminum, magnesium, and zinc diecastings, largely for products American Kawasaki Motorcycle Corp., but also for other automotive, industrial, and consumer buyers.

About 100 workers will be affected at Moline. The holding company, QuadCast Inc., also operates Davenport White Metal in Davenport, IA, and Red Oak Casting in Red Oak, IA.

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Davenport, IA – Banks that accepted bailout money are coming under even more criticism as they decide to liquidate some companies in need. Wells Fargo is taking heat from local Quad City Die Casting employees and union members for forcing the company to close come July.

Resolving to get a chance to talk, about a dozen employees who work for Quad City Die Casting show up at Wells Fargo late Monday afternoon. They ride up to corporate offices with a letter asking for a meeting to discuss alternatives to liquidating the manufacturing company.

“Hopefully they give us some time for someone else to buy us out,” says Lorey Butler, QC Die Casting employee of 9 years.

They return 20 minutes later. Their request for a meeting, denied.

“They were polite, but they said no and we were polite and said that’s not good enough,” says Tim Curtin, Union Representative.

Quad City Die Casting is set to close July 12th, leaving about 100 people out of work after Wells Fargo decided not extend more credit to the company. Union workers we spoke to didn’t know how much the company owed the bank but say, the $25 billion Wells Fargo got in bailout money should help save companies like there’s.

“We’re going to hold them accountable to for the bailout money they got from us and insist that they extend credit and keep jobs in our community,” says Leah Fried, union organizer.

Wells Fargo would not grant an interview and says it can’t comment on QC Die Casting in particular. But the company did release a statement saying it has extended more than $225 billion in credit to US consumers and businesses, nine times the amount of the investment it was given. It’s a time when banks face the hard decision of which companies to save and which to let go. Nothing in the stimulus bills requires a bank to save every company that needs it. But these employees believe QC Die Casting should be saved because of its history.

“They have a future of being profitable, they were profitable just a few short months ago and can be profitable again,” says Fried.

Employees say they’ll keep demanding a meeting to see if there are any alternatives to closing the factory. But their efforts might prove futile because Wells Fargo has told them it can’t talk with employees about the company’s finances and they need to talk with their employer instead.

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Pace Industries announced closing of Monroe City die casting. The management of Pace Industries announced the closing of its Monroe City Division die casting facility located at 135 Front Street Thursday, May 14.

The operation, formerly known as Kuhlman Die Casting, was built in 1951. Pace Industries acquired the business in 1990.

Continuing assistance will be provided to Monroe City associates by Pace Industries during the closing process. The company is currently scheduling meetings with the Missouri Division of Employment Security and the Missouri Department of Economic Development.

The plant closing is a WARN-covered event. WARN is the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The closing will affect approximately 190 production, administrative and management employees. Employees will be offered the opportunity to work during the period of the closing, which is projected to be July 14.

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