Canton area braces for loss of 2,000 jobs within 3 years

Timken and Hoover are intertwined with the communities.
CANTON (AP) -- For Robert Chaney, Timken Co. is more than a steel mill. It's a family tradition, a company that offered generations of Chaneys job security and the comfort of a stable retirement.
But the tradition is ending for Chaney and hundreds of other families who've never known life without Timken and vacuum maker Hoover Co. The companies with 105 combined years of history plan to close some plants, and within three years, nearly 2,000 jobs will be gone in this Northeast Ohio area.
"A lot of people around here worked at Timken at one time or another," Chaney said. "At one time, I counted 11 family members who worked there. And now it is going away and taking Hoover with it."
Announced shutdowns
Timken, which makes alloy steel and bearings, announced May 14 that it will shut down three area plants that employ 1,300 people, about a third of the company's local work force. Chaney's son, a 15-year steelworker following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, was among those given pink slips.
Three weeks after the Timken announcement, news came that vacuum maker Hoover was relocating its North Canton headquarters to Iowa. As many as 500 salaried jobs could be cut.
Timken's ties are obvious in Canton, a city of 80,000 about 60 miles south of Cleveland. Massive plants the size of several football fields seem to swallow the downtown. There's Timken High School, the Timken Center and at least one street bearing the steelmaker's name.
A few miles north in North Canton, Hoover has similar stature -- the roots of the once-mighty employer intertwine with those of the 16,300 residents.
The company, now owned by Newton, Iowa-based Maytag Corp., is North Canton's biggest taxpayer ($1.5 million annually) and a major contributor to charities.
One and the same
To many, Hoover and North Canton are one and the same, said Mayor Tom Rice.
"Hoover has been involved in building this community. The high school here is Hoover, and that says a lot," Rice said. "It has been the pillar and the backbone of this community."
The company began when W.H. "Boss" Hoover bought a vacuum cleaner patent in 1908 from a Canton inventor and began assembling them with a six-member staff. Today, Hoover employs about 1,755 in Stark County.
To save money
Maytag says moving the headquarters is part of a restructuring plan that will save the corporation $150 million.
Timken's history is just as deep. The family-run company was founded in 1934 by Henry Timken, his son and two daughters. It employs 4,800 in the Canton area and about 26,000 worldwide. Timken, too, says the shutdown is needed to save money.
Officials from both companies have said their decisions were difficult.
"This restructuring will cause hardship and challenges for many of our employees and their families," said Maytag chief executive officer Ralph Hake.
Analyst Holden Lewis said Timken's stretching out the plant closings over three years is as much about nostalgia as it is good business.
"There's an effort to try to not be too cold-hearted about it," he said.
Chaney, now retired, said his son is worried, too.
"He is really upset, to say the least, because you can't just go out and replace a $17 an hour job and the benefits they've got," he said.