Goodrich will close its landing gear plant in Cleveland next year, putting 400 people out of work. The company said the plant was under capacity and not profitable.
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Goodrich Landing Gear employee Sam Bowling said he's upset to hear that his plant will close next year. Goodrich said the 400-job plant hasn't been profitable for years.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Another piece of Cleveland's industrial history will disappear next year with the closing of Goodrich's 400-job landing gear plant.
Workers at the plant that opened more than 100 years ago said they were disappointed but not surprised about the upcoming closure. The plant that makes aircraft landing equipment hasn't had enough work for several years.
"We've got a lot of people here who've been here for 30 or 40 years," said Sam Bowling, 46, a Maple Heights resident who has worked at the plant for six years. "They made a good living, raised families over here."
Goodrich said it would move the work being done in Cleveland to other plants. Goodrich has landing gear plants in Texas, Tennessee and Washington as well as plants in Canada and Poland.
Several workers said that they were angry that some of the work could go to other countries. Goodrich makes landing equipment for military aircraft, but that work will likely go to the company's other U.S. plants.
Goodrich brought up the possibility of closing the plant earlier this year during contract talks with the United Auto Workers. The city, county and the UAW said at the time that they were working on incentives to keep the company here.
Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald said Wednesday the county offered Goodrich a $1 million forgivable loan and the city offered a series of loans and tax abatements. But Goodrich did not make a counter-offer or negotiate over the plant.
"It wasn't clear that they were interested in getting a proposal" from the city and county, Fitzgerald said. "When they made their decision, I don't really know."
The city's offer (pdf) included a $500,000 forgivable loan, up to 15 years of tax abatements and refunding 1 percent of income taxes collected on new workers at the facility if Goodrich were to move more work to Cleveland.
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"We're a little disappointed that they didn't call us if the costs to move those jobs here" were higher than what the city and county were offering, said Tracey Nichols, director of the city's economic development department. She added that the state had expressed willingness to offer incentives as well that could have closed any gaps in the city and county offers.
The company said earlier this year that it was not using the threat of closing the plant to win concessions from the union and that it had not made winning concessions a condition of taking an expansion tax break from the city.
Jerry Valentine, president of the United Auto Workers Local 2333, said it became clear during contract negotiations that it would have taken complete change in the plant's operations to save the facility.
"We could have worked for free, and they said it wasn't feasible to make money," Valentine said. He added that the company never asked for wage concessions during talks, focusing its efforts instead of discussing severance payments.
Goodrich said shutting the plant will cost the company $39 million with about $23 million going to severance payments to workers and other payments.
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Goodrich plans to close its 400-job landing gear plant at the end of next year. The plant traces its history in Cleveland to 1894.The plant and pneumatic landing gear produced there have a long history. According Case Western Reserve University's Encyclopedia of Cleveland, the plant traces its roots to 1894.
Originally the Union Electric Co., the plant switched to making pneumatic tools before the turn of the century and changed its name to Cleveland Pneumatic. In 1908, it produced many of the hammers and other power tools used to dig the Panama Canal.
Following World War I, the market for pneumatic tools was in decline. The company responded by inventing air spring shock absorbers for cars. In 1926, it converted the air shocks for use in aircraft, eventually becoming the industry standard for pneumatic landing gear.
The company went through a series of owners in the 1980s, eventually being bought by Goodrich in 1993.
"It's one of the companies that helped build greater Cleveland and helped build America," Fitzgerald said. "It's a disappointment. We're sorry to lose an important part of our history."
He added that the city and county will work to find new uses for the site, as it is trying to do with American Greetings as that company moves from Brooklyn to Westlake in 2014.
"This will be tougher to find a secondary use for" than American Greetings' headquarters, Fitzgerald said. The greeting card company's offices are closer to interstates and retail areas. The Goodrich plant is in an industrial district.
Bowling, the Goodrich worker, said he took a job after TRW shut down its valve plant in Cleveland.
"This isn't my first rodeo," Bowling said. "It's a sad day. Now I have to go find another place to work. I had hoped this would be the last one for me."