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Last updated 5:08 am CT February 09, 2010.
Transcraft to Close Anna Plant
About seventy-five people are set to lose their job at the Transcraft plant in Anna. The parent company says the shutdown is part of a consolidation prompted by the tough economy.
Thomas Rains was one of the last to leave the Transcraft plant Tuesday. The unexpected announcement made the work day seem extra long.
"Everybody was just mad and kind of surprised...and just wondering what they're going to do," Rains said.
Rains and his co-workers knew they weren't filling as many orders as they usually do, but they had no idea the plant--which produces truck trailers--would close down.
The announcement came as a surprise to city and county leaders, too.
"Anytime you take a business or a corporation closing in your town...it's not a good thing," said Mayor Steve Hartline.
The company is offering employees a severance and the possibility of a job at the Transcraft plant in Cadiz, Ky., but Rains says they haven’t been promised jobs.
"They said they want some people to go down there and train…but then they said we wouldn't be guaranteed a job down there," he said.
The plan is for the building to be sold to local businessman Rusty Flamm. According to Transcraft, Flamm plans to expand the home improvement business he's already established in Anna and Vienna.
That's a glimmer of good news.
"I'm glad and thankful that [Flamm] has stepped up and is looking at that and the city will be behind him and hopefully his business will thrive on that," Hartline said.
Still, it's unlikely the business will absorb all of Transcraft's laid off employees, and that leaves workers like Rains to deliver unpleasant news to the people waiting for him after a long day of work.
"I don't know [how to explain it,]” Rains said. “I'll think about that on the way home I guess."
The plant is expected to close in the first half of next year.
Rains says workers have been offered incentives to stay on until then.
By Dana Jay
djay@wsiltv.com
Now: 1265714317
