The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Foley closed plants, moved operations abroad
Tom Foley, when he owned T.B. Wood’s Sons, closed several plants and consolidated operations, mainly to Mexico.
HARTFORD » Tom Foley, when he owned T.B. Wood’s Sons, closed several plants and consolidated operations, mainly to an updated plant in Mexico.
The Memphis Business Journal reported in 2004 that the company’s manufacturing facility in Trenton, Tennessee, was closing, eliminating 78 jobs.
A newad by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s campaign mentions Foley, his Republican opponent, outsourced jobs to Mexico.
The filing with the Security and Exchange Commission said the company had closed facilities that it believed were no longer necessary and consolidated the manufacturing operations of its Trenton plant, one in Stratford, Ontario, in Canada and a plant in Mexico City.
The SEC report said they were moved to other locations “principally its San Luis Potosi, Mexico, faciity.”
“The company continues to evaluate its operating locations to ensure that it can achieve the maximum amount of efficiencies,” it said.
The SEC filing said T.B. Woods had enhanced “its manufacturing capabilities in a new state-of-the art manufacturing facility” at San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
The closure in Tennessee in September 2004was part of its cost-reduction plan for its mechanical division, according to the filing.
The Memphis Business Journal said the company had been an employer in Dyer County, Tennessee, for more than 20 years.
It said the firm would work with employees to find employment.
The closing of the plant cost $1.5 million for relocation and training of new workers.
Foley’s campaign did not answer a request for comment.
Foley bought T.B. Wood’s Sons in 1987 and for three years workers at its Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, headquarters had their wages frozen.
The Malloy ad says Foley offered his workers 10 cents an hour, while he made $40 million.
The ad is correct in both regards, but they did not happen at the same time.
The 10 cents-an-hour raise offer for the first year of a contract was offered in early April 1990 with 7 cents in each of the following two years.
This was rejected and led to workers authorizing their negotiating team to call a strike.
The union negotiators then recommended that workers take the company’s next offer of 50 centsan-hour wage hike in each of the three following years, but it was rejected in a narrow vote by the workers.
They went on strike on April 30, 1990, and the company started hiring replacement workers after six weeks.
The Chambersburg Public Opinion reported the machinists had offered to come back in May 1990 after replacement workers began being hired, but the company refused. After three years, 322 workers eventually were fired, according to the paper.
The Baltimore Sun reported that the company offered to take back some workers, but the union wanted everyone or no one.
By December 1993, the union was voted out.
Foley has said anyone who wanted to come back in the first six weeks was welcome and that he had to keep the plant running to protect all the workers.
He blamed the union for giving workers bad advice.
In the early years of the strike there were numerous violent actions and court challenges in a town that was divided by the issue.
Founded in 1857, T.B. Wood’s Sons remained under family control until Foley bought it.
The company makes power transmission devices, including coupling, sheaves, variable speed drives and motor controls.
Foley earned an estimated $40million when he sold the company in 2007, after President George W. Bush made him ambassador to Ireland.
Foley has also come under criticism for laying off 500 people when he owned the Bibb Co. in Georgia and closing two mills, before the company went into bankruptcy.