NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — Fort Smith officials on Tuesday confirmed that 117 workers at the Southern Steel & Wire Co. plant will lose their jobs by Jan. 5.
City Administrator Dennis Kelly said the global manufacturer did not reveal why it planned on shuttering its production operations. An administrative office will remain, said Kelly, who was unsure how may employees would stay in Fort Smith.
“All I know is what’s in the letter,” Kelly said referring to a Friday letter sent in compliance with federal regulations.
“The anticipated schedule for layoffs could be extended should the production requirements of Southern’s customers change,” the letter said.
The privately held business head quartered in Elizabethtown, Ky., operates a 280,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Fort Smith, according to its website. Several attempts to reach SSW Holding Co. were not successful by press time.
Residential refrigerator products such as shelving and related parts are among the products made by SSW Holding Inc., according to its website. And the company has supplied such parts to a Whirlpool manufacturing plant.
Fort Smith is home to manufacturers such as Whirlpool Corp., Trane Inc. and Rheem Manufacturing Co.
Rick Nemeth, president of United Steel Workers Local 370 which represents about 2,000 Whirlpool employees in Fort Smith, confirmed that the Whirlpool plant received wire baskets from Southern Steel & Wire and said fellow union officials were “devastated over this.”
United Steelworkers Local 13-467 represents 104 of the 117 Southern Steel & Wire workers, according to the manufacturer, and on Tuesday held its monthly union meeting.
“I’m not sure what’s going on,” Nemeth said. “But I’m sure it’s not good for us.”
The state’s unemployment rate in September was 7.7 percent.
The Fort Smith metropolitan statistical area had a notseasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 7.9 percent in August, the most recent data available. For August, preliminary figures show 21,500 employed in the manufacturing sector in the statistical area, down from 21,600 for August 2009. In August 2005, the sector employed 28,900.
Southern Steel & Wire operates facilities in Madison and Newport, Tenn., Elizabethtown, Ky., Evansville, Ind., Clinton, Iowa, and Ludington, Mich., in addition to plants in Mexico and China, according to its website.
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Northwest Arkansas, Pages 14 on 10/27/2010