Wednesday, June 9, 2004
Timken, Hoover closings tear northeast Ohio roots
Factories part of the fabric of two cities
By Connie Mabin
The Associated Press
CANTON, Ohio - For Robert Chaney, Timken Co. is more than a steel mill. It's a family tradition, a company that offered generations of Chaneys job security and the comfort of a stable retirement.
But the tradition is ending for Chaney and hundreds of other families who've never known life without Timken and vacuum maker Hoover Co. The companies with 105 combined years of history plan to close some plants, and within three years, nearly 2,000 jobs will be gone in this northeast Ohio area.
"A lot of people around here worked at Timken at one time or another," Chaney said Tuesday. "At one time, I counted 11 family members who worked there. And now it is going away and taking Hoover with it."
Timken, which makes alloy steel and bearings, announced May 14 it would shut down three area plants that employ 1,300 people, about a third of the company's local work force. Chaney's son, a 15-year steelworker following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, was among those given pink slips.
Three weeks after the Timken announcement, news came that vacuum maker Hoover was relocating its North Canton headquarters to Iowa. As many as 500 salaried jobs could be cut.
Timken's ties are obvious in Canton, a city of 80,000 about 60 miles south of Cleveland. Massive plants seem to swallow the downtown. There's Timken High School, Timken Center and a street with the steel maker's name.
Company, town intertwined
A few miles north in North Canton, Hoover has similar stature - roots of the once-mighty employer intertwine with those of the 16,300 residents.
The firm, now owned by Newton, Iowa-based Maytag Corp., is North Canton's biggest taxpayer ($1.5 million annually) and a major contributor to charities.
To many, Hoover and North Canton are one and the same, said Mayor Tom Rice.
"Hoover has been involved in building this community. The high school here is Hoover, and that says a lot," Rice said. "It has been the pillar and the backbone of this community."
The company began when W.H. "Boss" Hoover bought a vacuum-cleaner patent in 1908 from a Canton inventor and began assembling them with a six-member staff. Today, Hoover employs about 1,755 in Stark County.
Maytag says moving the headquarters is part of a restructuring plan that will save the corporation $150 million.
Timken's history is just as deep. The family run company was founded in 1934 by Henry Timken, his son and two daughters. It employs 4,800 in the Canton area and about 26,000 worldwide. Timken, too, says the shutdown is needed to save money.
Officials from both companies have said their decisions were difficult.
Still, the communities worry about the future.
"Everybody knows somebody who works at Timken or Hoover," said 24-year-old James Curry during a break from his job at Wal-Mart. "I have friends from high school who went to work there, but that won't happen anymore.
"I hope some good paying jobs follow," he said. "These retail jobs don't pay much."
Unions try to save some jobs
Union officials hope last-minute negotiations will ultimately save some jobs.
"We've been here almost 100 years and we're trying to be here another 100 years," said Jim Repace, president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1985. The union represents more than 1,100 Hoover workers.
Stan Jasionowski, president of the United Steelworkers of America Local 1123, said the Hoover announcement made the Timken news harder to take. His union represents all Canton-area Timken plant workers.
From the union hall window, he has seen lines at the food bank grow longer.
The line, Jasionowski said, reminds him there's too much at stake to let the remaining jobs go without a fight.
"We can't let it die," he said.
"We have to do whatever we can to save as many jobs as we can."
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