Cequent Plans Layoffs in Tekonsha

[HBarlow]

Cequent plans layoffs in Tekonsha

Manufacturer to reduce production staff by one-third

<?xml:namespace prefix = fb ns = "http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml" /><fb:like class=" fb_edge_widget_with_comment fb_iframe_widget" ref="artrectop" font="" action="recommend" show_faces="false" width="429" send="false" href=""></fb:like>12:25 AM, Dec. 21, 2011

Battle Creek Enquirer by John C. Sherwood

TEKONSHA -- Cequent Electrical Products intends to lay off 42 employees -- mostly production workers -- at its facility at 101 Spires Parkway in this village's industrial park.

The layoffs will take place during July, the company said.
Many of those production workers are likely to be Tekonsha area residents, village President Corey Wood said Tuesday.

The facility will remain in operation, but the cuts will reduce its staff level by about one-third, leaving 88 employees at Tekonsha while the company moves a portion of its manufacturing business to Mexico, a company spokesman said.

"Tekonsha is going to remain the center for all electrical product development" for the company, said Cequent's spokesman, Al Upchurch of the Farmington Hills-based public-relations firm Marx Layne & Co. "The company will continue to invest in that key area of their business. "

Cequent manufactures automotive brake controls as well as lighting equipment for recreational vehicles and trailers, Upchurch said. One of its electronic brake-control brands for trailers carries the Tekonsha name.

Wood said he was unsure how the local employment situation might be addressed by officials for the village, which owns and manages the industrial park.

"But this is big for us," he said. "It's going to be a tough situation. "
Wood said that, in addition to being a prominent local employer, Cequent is among the village's top five customers for water and sewer services and that a production decline by the company would "definitely cause some pain. "

Upchurch said the company intends to move manufacture of original-equipment and after-market brake controls to a facility based in the city of Reynosa, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Production of the company's Bargman brand lighting products also is being moved to Reynosa, he said.

After-market products are sold to auto-supply stores for use in repairs.

The transfer of production to Mexico "allows Cequent to remain competitive and ensures that a large piece of its automotive business will remain with the company through 2019," Upchurch said.

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Tekonsha is the company that manufacturers the inertia-activated trailer brake controllers that I consider almost as good as the driver dragging his foot out his door.

 

[Nyoest]

Wow, they still manufacture electronics in the us? Well at least up to this point they did.

Guess I bought my last prodigy controller.

 

[HBarlow]

They're not very good for stopping trailers but you could use it as a paperweight.

 

[Nyoest]

They have always been adequate for my uses.

It's unfortunate for the employees. I remember when Fasco, a local manufacturer moved to Mehico. Job market was flooded with applicants and it a tough time for a lot of blue collar folks.

 

[Matt42]

Another brand to avoid. My experience with most products, excluding our trucks, is that when they move production to Mexico or China, the quality takes a nosedive. The retail prices either go up or stay level, though.

 

[The patriot]

They got the plant to under 100 employees.

That means there are far less obligation that need to be met to close it all together.

It's exactly what my last job did.

 

[PBJ2500CTD]

I "vote" with my wallet. That's one more company that will no longer get my $$$. It's a sad day when good companies are bought out by private investment groups who look to "maximize" profits beyond a reasonable sum - a trickle to the investors and a bundle to the fund managers - all in the guise to "remain competitive". You can only merge and acquire so many companies under one roof before it becomes a monopoly... leaving no alternative company to take your business to.

 

[Matt42]

It's not just investment funds and their managers that do that. GM, back when it was known as General Motors, was pushing their suppliers to the point where they had to move production to Mexico or lose GM's business. This "friendly encouragement, Chicago-style, included small businesses that had been in a family for two generations, who treated their employees like family. My father was an employee of one of them. When he developed terminal cancer, the family company negotiated with their employee health insurance company to raise the policy's major medical limits for all the employees, then about 200 people, so long as they would include my father who was only going to live another 12 to 18 months. That was to keep from bankrupting my small family. He died about a decade before before GM strong-armed the family company into moving production of a major product to Mexico. All except about 20 people, in Ohio, were let go, with great sorrow and apologies and the best severance package that the family could afford.



Unfortunately, the product quality suffered, and the costs in Mexico were not as low as they expected. Worse, they were wholly unprepared for the incredible government corruption and the daily cost in bribery just to get things done. Cars and property belonging to the American employees were fair game for theft, as were the tools belonging to the company. Then came the violence and murders throughout Mexico. Some years later, they sold out that product line to a Chinese company. I think that the product quality is back up.

 

[JRMora]

The company I work for (a major player in the general aviation industry) has offloaded much work from the US to Mexico (and China). It's frustrating to watch the jobs flow south, especially when there is ample evidence that the costs involved are much higher when you factor the cost of quality. We had almost 700 people in our plant in 2008. We will have 60 or so by early next year. In the end, i try to "buy american" when I can, but it's getting harder and harder to find the products I need.

Juan

 

[EGroeneveld]

Well until people get the connection of buying made in china/mexico with the US unemployment rate this will continue. Until people support locally made products and local shops but keep buying at Walmart made in china cheap crap this will only get worse. This just goes a round in a big circle. Makes me made to see Union guys that buy everything possible at Walmart as cheap as possible to save a couple of bucks or online via Amazon.com. This does almost nothing for US jobs. One of these days it will be their job gone offshore. People just don't see the connection. I'm trying to buy everything I can through a local shop and choose USA made if at all possible. As a small business owner it circles back to ME.

 

[HBarlow]

I've owned three outstanding Dodge trucks with Cummins engines, an '01, an '06, and now an '08. All three have been made in Mexico. Quality control on these three trucks I've owned has been better than previous vehicles made by labor unions in American plants.

Its not greedy company owners who are shifting manufacturing overseas to increase profits, its greedy labor union members forcing manufacturers to move overseas to survive.

If every worker in America belonged to a labor union Americans wouldn't be able to afford a single item made in America.