Trane to shut down Arkansas plant; 250 jobs go

Output shifts away from Fort Smith

The Fort Smith Trane plant is closing, the company said Monday, leaving 250 employees out of work as it shifts production to four other U.S. plants.

Trane said Monday that it's moving its residential heating, ventilation and air conditioning manufacturing operation to plants in Lynn Haven, Fla.; Columbia, S.C.; Vidalia, Ga.; and Tyler, Texas. In a statement, the company said the move was vital to optimize its manufacturing operation in a competitive environment. The Fort Smith plant, in the 4800 block of Zero Street, began operation in 1964.

The transfer of manufacturing to the other plants will be phased in and is expected to be completed this summer. A company spokesman said Trane will offer job-search assistance and will host a job fair for employees at the Fort Smith plant.

Fort Smith is also home to a Trane Commercial HVAC plant at 9900 Aire Circle, which will remain in operation. Trane is owned by Ireland-based Ingersoll Rand.

Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders said Monday that he had not been notified by the company about job losses but was informed that the plant is closing.

A company with more than 100 employees is required to notify the local government of a "mass layoff" that affects a certain number of full-time workers at an employment site during any 30-day period, according to the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

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"We're very disappointed in the decision," Sanders said.

"It will have a negative impact, but we've been able to overcome disappointments like this over the years, and I'm confident we'll proceed. We do have some plants that are hiring in Fort Smith. That's good news, and the fact they're going to keep one portion of their operation going here."

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission did not receive early notice of the plant's closure, spokesman Scott Hardin said.

"While today's Trane announcement is certainly disappointing, the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce is optimistic about the progress that the region has experienced in the past few years," Tim Allen, the chamber president, said in a statement.

In a later phone interview, Allen said the city has added 5,000 new jobs over the past four years as a result of over 100 economic development projects with an estimated capital investment of $680 million.

"These workers have a place to go now," he said. "There's a place for highly skilled workers in Fort Smith."

In June, battery-maker Exide Technology said it would invest $30.7 million to expand and update its Fort Smith plant.

In March, the long vacant Mitsubishi Power Systems building in Chaffee Crossing became the home of P.H. Glatfelter Co., a global manufacturer of specialty paper such as filters and wrapping paper. In the summer of 2015, furniture retailer FFO Home moved its corporate offices, manufacturing and distribution operations to Fort Smith.

Kathy Deck, a University of Arkansas economist and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, said Fort Smith has been diversifying out of necessity because of manufacturing industry struggles.

Manufacturing accounted for 15 percent of the nonfarm employment in the area in 2016 after being as high as 22 percent over the past decade, according to Deck.

In June 2012, appliance-maker Whirlpool shut down its Fort Smith plant, resulting in the loss of about 800 jobs. The plant produced trash compactors, ice makers and three types of side-by-side refrigerators. At its peak, the plant employed 4,600 workers.

"Whirlpool closed, and those jobs were lost about the time of the Great Recession," Deck said.

"Other communities recovered from the Great Recession and saw their employment levels bounce back, and Fort Smith has not. They have not really seen further deterioration in their economy, but they have not bounced back the way that everywhere else has."

Preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Labor on the Fort Smith metropolitan statistical area -- which covers Sebastian, Crawford and Franklin counties in Arkansas and LeFlore and Sequoyah counties in Oklahoma -- shows the area's unemployment rate at 4.3 percent in December, down from 5.1 percent at the same time a year ago. The preliminary statewide unemployment rate for December was 3.8 percent, down from 4.6 percent for December 2015.

"The manufacturing piece -- which these jobs are in -- declined precipitously over time, although it has stabilized in recent years," Deck said about the Trane plant closure.

"It's really tough when they lose additional manufacturing jobs because it's not easy to translate those workers into other sectors."

A Section on 02/14/2017

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