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Hyosung moving equipment to Vietnam
(The Decatur Daily (AL) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 2--Hyosung USA, which last week announced it will lay off 65 from its Decatur plant, is shifting jobs and equipment to Vietnam and China, according to a union official.
South Korean Hyosung, which bought the plant from Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in 2006, has transported 12 of its cable-corder machines -- which twist yarn for use in a tire fabric -- to a plant in Vietnam, said Jamie Casteel, president of Local 88-T of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.
He said the company plans to ship another 12 machines to Vietnam in the next two months.
Other Hyosung employees contacted The Daily with the same information.
Jim Garber, human resources director of the Decatur plant, said he did not think the company had shipped out that many cable-corder machines.
"I'm not sure that's accurate, but I don't know the status of the Vietnam plant," Garber said. "I guess the chairman of Hyosung can put the equipment wherever he chooses to put it."
Plant Manager Andy Kelly did not immediately respond to a call Tuesday.
Hyosung announced in June 2007 its plan to build a $160 million tire-cord plant in Dong Nai province near Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. It said it would begin production in 2010.
Before it began moving the cable corders overseas, Casteel said, Hyosung had 62 of the machines. Moving the machines to Vietnam means outsourcing jobs previously held by U.S. workers.
"American people need to wake up," Casteel said. "All of our jobs are going overseas."
Garber said Hyosung moved the cable-corder machines to make room for an automotive carpet operation, but he said the announced layoffs are a direct result of moving the cable corders. He said the planned carpet operations should reduce the number of layoffs.
Hyosung also moved jobs to China, Casteel said. Some of the fabric it once wove at the 19th Avenue Southeast looms, it now imports -- pre-woven -- from China.
"They're bringing quite a bit of yarn in from overseas already woven, it's just ready to be dipped," Casteel said. "That's cutting out two processes there."
Garber said Hyosung imports pre-woven fabric to utilize excess capacity in its rubberizing dip unit.
When it bought the Goodyear plant, Hyosung employed 410 workers. Now it is down to 350, and when the layoffs are complete it will be down to 285 unless the planned carpet production offsets that number.
Casteel, who operated a cable corder before he became the union president, said the exported jobs are among Hyosung's highest paid. He said hourly wages at the plant range from $12.50 to the low $20s per hour, with the average about $17.
"The jobs we're losing are the highest paying jobs in the plant," Casteel said. "It's going to trickle down and affect the lower ones too."
Most of the lost production jobs, he said, were at the top end of the range.
"I think the plant will keep running, it's just a matter of with how many people," Casteel said. "We've had a lot of people quit since this company took over. That's probably why we haven't already had a layoff."
The layoffs, Casteel said, are hurting morale. Efforts to send local workers to Vietnam to train employees there are not helping.
"Morale's low and it's only going to get worse before it gets better," he said.
Garber said he was unaware of any effort to send Decatur workers to train Vietnamese workers.
"Hyosung has been in this business a long time," Garber said. "They don't need to rely on any expertise we have here."
Casteel said he and many of his colleagues are frustrated by U.S. inaction on foreign competition.
"Congress sits there while this is going on and while gas passes $4 a gallon, and they investigate Roger Clemons. Or they try to figure out if the New England Patriots actually cheated," Casteel complained. "They're spending their time worrying about stuff like that, while we're losing jobs."
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Decatur Daily, Ala.
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