CANTON Plants must boost efficiency, Timken tells union leaders

Jobs will be cut if the plants don't become competitive, the company said.
CANTON (AP) -- The Timken Co.'s three bearings plants in the city could be in danger of closing unless the company becomes satisfied with their competitiveness, the union president for the plants' workers said Thursday.
Denise Bowler, spokeswoman for the company that also makes specialty steel, said the bearings plants in the Canton Industrial Bearing Complex need to improve, but the company does not have plans to close them.
The plants employ about 1,300 people. Executives from the Canton-based company met Wednesday with United Steelworkers of America officials and hourly workers to discuss Timken's demand to cut costs and improve production.
"They said we need to improve in three areas to be competitive ... or they would close the Canton [bearings] operations down," said Stan Jasionowski, president of Steelworkers Local 1123.
Timken roller bearings of various sizes are used mostly to reduce friction in industrial machinery. Employment at Timken's bearings operations in Canton has declined from about 2,100 in 1998.
'A turning point'
"We've continually talked about competitiveness in Canton to our associates," Bowler said. "Yesterday's meetings really were a turning point, because we need to do more. There have been 800 jobs lost since 1998, and unless the suggestions lead to change, the downward employment trend will continue."
Michael C. Arnold, Timken's Industrial Group president, said in a letter sent Wednesday to employees that despite capital investment of $100 million in the Canton bearings operations during the past 10 years the plants "are unable to profitably win new business from equipment manufacturers, many of which have moved their operations outside the U.S."