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IBEW Members at Thomson Inc. Face Shutdown
of March 22, 2004 "Last year we lost one-third of our workforce to lay-offs. This year all of our members -most of them between 34 and 60 years old- are losing their jobs. It will be difficult for them to find decent-paying jobs. The shut-down will have a terrible effect on the tax base of our surrounding Ohio counties".-Lonnie Hawk Lonnie Hawk is President and Business Manager of IBEW Local 2331. He represents IBEW members at Thomson Inc. in Circleville, Ohio. The plant produces glass for Thomsons TV and cathode ray tube (CRT) plant in Marion, Indiana. On March 17th, Thomson announced that the Circleville and Marion plants will close, forcing 1,375 IBEW members out of work. The tube production will be moved to Mexicali, Mexico. Thomson intends to obtain glass from outside suppliers. The company has also shut down a wood plant in Mocksville, North Carolina, that employed 80 workers who produced cabinets for rear projection TVs. Local 2331 was due to begin negotiations on a new contract with Thomson this month. The company had previously told the union that "extensive" furnace upgrading would be scheduled in 2005. Local 1160 in Marion had agreed to a one -year contract extension. The company previously discussed the prospect of a shutdown due to business competition. While Thomsons tube production is moving to Mexico, the competitive pressure that led to the move, and the abandonment of glass making, originates in the Far East. Consumer Electronics Daily (March 18, 2004) states: "Thomsons closing of CRT and TV glass plants is part of the continuing retrenchment of the tube business in the U.S., as manufacturers move production to low-cost regions such as Mexico and the Far East, industry officials said. With direct-view [tube] TV price wars raging at retail, manufacturers have moved in recent years to transfer production of 19-20" tubes to the Far East, leading to speculation that 25" and up sizes arent far behind." The "dumping" of TVs on the U.S. market by China and Malaysia -selling color televisions for less than the cost of making them- is a factor in the "price wars. The IBEW was party, with the U.S. government and other unions, to a petition that accuses China and Malaysia of illegally "dumping" TVs on the U.S. market (see July/August, 2003 IBEW Journal). The U.S. International Trade Commission will hold a "final injury" hearing on the dumping case on April 15, 2004. Thomson, a French-owned corporation, was not party to the anti-dumping action. They have taken the "if you cant beat them, join them" approach to the Far East competition. Tony Blankenship was Business Manager of Local 2331 for fifteen years and now works in the Manufacturing Department of the IBEW. He says: "I have to laugh when Thomson talks about foreign competition. They are in the process of merging with TCL International, a Chinese firm; the merger will be final in July, 2004. Our foreign competition is Thomson." Blankenship said that Thomson brought four managers in from Europe two years ago to run the Circleville facility. Then they forced 80 supervisors and engineers into retirement. He says: "Among them were key engineers and furnace experts. They were replaced by others who didnt have a clue about how to run a glass plant." Blankenship says that Thomsons long-term goal is to leave manufacturing behind. Thomson owns Technicolor, a major manufacturer of film for movies. They also own Grass Valley, a firm that produces audio for the entertainment industry. He says that they want to end up in services like audio and video replication and out of manufacturing. Steve Rowland, Business Manager of Local 1160 in Marion, says: "These devastating shutdowns are all about trade policy. I hope people are aware that, with an election coming up, they need to get registered to vote Mr. Bush out and get someone in who will look out for American workers."
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