The Announcement

"By the end of November 2015, Mitsubishi will end production at the plant in Normal."

Shock, disbelief, denial.

No, scratch the denial.

They told us flat out it's happening.

Can't deny that.

Why I had been so sure this was not going to happen:

1. In my area of the plant, the company two weeks before had just installed $100,000 of upgrades to the equipment that installs the wheels. Why would they spend so much on something that would only be used temporarily?

2. During the month of the announcement we were working overtime, ten hour days to meet demand. Overtime adds cost to production costs, so why not work standard eight hour shifts to keep costs down?

3. Four days previously the company had hired a group of full time employees to keep manufacturing at full staff. Why pay more personnel?

4. On a monthly basis the company has put out memos bragging of sales increases. With sales on the upswing, wouldn't it make sense to continue production here?

Why I think it happened:

(Bear in mind, this is purely speculation on my part. The company has provided us with little to no information on this subject.)

1. Mitsubishi has been struggling with lackluster sales worldwide, and is unable to run production facilities at or near capacity.

2. The model built in Normal is sold worldwide under several model names, and is/was built at a plant in Japan also.

3. With the collapse of the Russian and Ukrainian economies, 40% of the production in Normal evaporated overnight.

4. It was not a difficult decision business-wise to combine all production of this vehicle in one production facility.

July 23, 2015

Let me back up a little. Nancy and I are heading up to Kemp’s on Thursday evening for their penultimate day of business before moving to the new digs down the street. As I'm driving I get a text, I assume from Dennis who is meeting us there. I hand my phone to Nancy to see what he has to say. I was wrong, it wasn't Dennis after all, it was Kevin, asking if I'd seen the news story regarding the plant (when I say "the plant" I'm referring to my place of employment, Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America.)

Apparently a Reuters News report had come out stating that the plant was closing. I replied to the text that I'd not heard that, and frankly, I was not concerned. In the 26+ years I've worked there, rumors have popped up periodically that the plant was closing. The first time was after I'd only been employed there for a month! This happened so often that I would ignore the rumors, not unlike the “boy who cried wolf.” While it was unusual for a rumor to be spread by a major news feed, it was not unheard of. In fact, the local print media seems to relish printing bad news regarding the plant (one of the largest employers in the county!)

I soon got another text from someone else sharing the same story, and then received a phone call from the original texter. I believed this story to be nothing more than another unfounded rumor, and told both of these individuals so. In the back of my mind, however, the fact that these two had seen the same story was a bit troublesome, but I still didn't think it true.

July 25, 2015

Walking into work that morning the topic of most all conversations was the news. Was it true? What is going to happen to us? Nobody had any real idea if the report was another speculative article just trying to make news and sell papers, or if it was indeed true. Rumors spread quickly, but mostly they were run of the mill rumors. Then word came to the factory floor that a plant-wide meeting was scheduled at 9:00. I was still in denial at this point, in the past the company had hastily scheduled meetings to quash untrue rumors. I assumed (or hoped) this was the case again. Break time began as usual at about 8:30 with still no word. Plenty of speculation, but no word. After break we headed to the meeting area. As with all plant-wide meetings, everyone was there, but this time the mood was cool, with a lot of uncertainty in peoples' eyes.

The meeting began promptly at nine, with the plant spokesman thanking us for attending. He then introduced a Japanese gentleman (whose name and position I cannot recall). This speaker approached the microphone, and said "good morning" in his thick accent. He began his next sentence, but had to step away from the dais to compose himself. This is the moment when I finally knew that it was true. We were done.

After the meeting we were told to take the remainder of the day off (paid), and to return to work Monday morning at our regular shift start time. I suppose this was to give us all a few days to digest what was happening, and to make sure that the initial shock and any potential disgruntlement associated would cool down before we began work again.

July 28, 2015

Monday morning. In the best of times, not everybody's favorite time of the week. This time however, it was filled with questions and anxiety. Questions which would remain unanswered for the time being, and anxiety which would continue to hang over our heads until said questions were answered. We all walked in, went to our work stations and did our work as if nothing had changed. I can't speak for any of the others, but it was a bit surreal for me.

Early August, 2015

It's now over two weeks after the initial announcement, and so far very little information being passed down. We know that the projected date of the final unit off of the line is November 30. We know that the closing will not affect our retirement. We also know that our 401k is unaffected by this. Other than those three items, we know nothing. The not knowing just might be the worst part right now. What does the future hold for us? What type of severance will we receive? Will our insurance coverage be extended? Will there be training programs or educational opportunities?  Is this a personal set-back or a chance to improve myself? I struggle now to see this glass as half-full. So many questions we need answered, answered soon. Please, soon.

I suppose for the time being, I’ll just keep going through the motions.

Going to work, collecting a paycheck.

Waiting and wondering.

Expecting the worst and hoping for the best.

Radio Interview

I was interviewed by the local NPR station, link HERE