More bad news tonight for Michiana's R.V. industry, Monaco Coach Corporation announced today it's cutting more than 1,400 jobs and closing plants in Wakarusa, Elkhart and Nappanee. Just 3 months ago, the company announced it was laying off 600 employees. Monaco's Director of Communications says these new cuts were inevitable.
FOX 28 spoke with a handful of Monaco workers that just found out today that they've been laid off. Many of the employees knew cutbacks were coming, but just not this many and not this soon. Those employees were not willing to speak with us on camera fearing that they would loose their jobs immediately. They also feared that they would loose their severance packages as well. And even if those laid off workers file for unemployment or try to find something temporary, the job market is just saturated right now.
"There has been some production changes here over the past 18 months also in Oregon and in Warsaw so they weren't notified obviously before today they have seen the industry and clearly a lot of the competitors around unfortunately have made some of the same moves," said Monaco Director of Communications Craig Wanicheck.
Wanicheck also says the company plans to move its Class-A diesel production to Oregon. They say it's cheaper to manufacture on the west coast than here in Michiana.
"We tried to do as much as we could to keep this plant open as long as we could," said Wanicheck.
But plants in Elkhart, Wakarusa, and Nappanee are all closing down. The 1400 layoffs not only include factory workers, but administrative staff professionals as well. Those workers can stay at their Michiana plant for the next 60 days. But when September 17th rolls around, they'll be out of a job.
"We're working with the A.P with other manufacturing and other companies in the area and try and do what we can to help you know transitions the best that we can," said Wanicheck.
But is it enough? Employment firms are already overloaded with the thousands of other RV workers that have been laid off in the past few years. State Representative Jackie Walorski says the state and federal government must step in and help. She sent this letter to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels.
"What I'm asking the government to do is bring people up here. Bring staff to Elkhart County much like we do to floods in Indiana in the southern part of the state like we just did. Bring folks up here and make this easier for Hooiser families to get cash," said Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Lakeville.
Walorski is asking for a 'rapid response team' and workforce development workers to try to tackle this growing epidemic. While these efforts may offer relief to laid off workers. both Walorski and Wanicheck want to focus on the economy.
"It's really important to us that our government come up with a policy on energy that makes sense and right now we don't have one," said Wanicheck.
"Are these two presidential candidate who aren't doing squat about this issue...they're ducking from it, they're pretending it doesn't exist...that's where Hoosiers will make a difference. That's when Americans will decide if they've had it with this issue," said Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Lakeville.
State Representative Jackie Walorski also plans to present a bill in January before Congress. This bill will suspend the sales tax for any consumer who buys their RV in Indiana.
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