Packard plans to shut Cortland plant

By Don Shilling

Officials said there isn’t enough business to keep two plastic-molding plants.

About 15 salaried workers will lose their jobs when Delphi Packard Electric closes its Cortland plant.

The same number will be reassigned to other Packard plants, as will the 70 hourly workers, said David Olsen, a Packard spokesman. About half of the hourly workers will go to Packard’s Vienna plant, while the rest would be used in other plants.

Packard told workers Tuesday that the plastic-molding operations of the Cortland plant will be consolidated into the Vienna plant, which does the same work.

Union officials are considering challenging the closing, however. Mike O’Donnell, shop chairman of Local 717 of the International Union of Electrical Workers, said he will be meeting with national union leaders to “formulate a plan to keep the plant operating.”

O’Donnell said the union leaders think the labor contract requires the plant to be kept open, but he added that company executives have disagreed.

Olsen said drops in orders are forcing the actions.

Both Cortland and Vienna produce plastic parts that are used in wiring assemblies that Packard provides to automakers.

Vehicle sales are down this year.

“We’re told that the drops would be permanent. We don’t have the volume to support two plants,” Olsen said.

The closing is scheduled to occur within the first three months of 2009.

He said officials haven’t decided what would be done with the plant building.

The Cortland plant was designed to operate with 120 workers and the Vienna plant for 180.

The Vienna plant also is operating with fewer than 100 employees.

The two plants at one time were seen as the high-tech future of Packard’s local operations because their molding machines could churn out high volumes of parts.

The Cortland plant, which had been closed for three years, was reopened in 2000 at a cost of $42 million.

In 2003, Packard spent $58 million to build the Vienna plant.

Packard has cut its hourly work force in the area from 3,800 to 800 since its parent company, Delphi Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005.

shilling@vindy.com