Colgate-Palmolive Co. has informed state officials that it plans to lay off additional workers in late October. Meanwhile, town officials in Clarksville say communication with the company has slowed to a trickle as the plant’s closing nears.
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September 9, 2007
Colgate-Palmolive Co. has informed state officials that it plans to lay off additional workers in late October. Meanwhile, town officials in Clarksville say communication with the company has slowed to a trickle as the plant’s closing nears.
The new layoffs were announced in required notices posted on the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s Web site. The notice says that 49 people will be laid off as of Oct. 26. The department requires employers to provide 60 days notice of certain layoffs.
The plant — a fixture near the Clarksville waterfront —is set to close by January. When the company announced that it was leaving the area in late 2005, there were about 500 employees working there. At last check there were only a few hundred left. As layoffs occur, some employees are receiving severance benefits, based on years of employment.
The company is moving part of its operation to Morristown, Tenn. The remainder of the work done in Clarksville will be moved to Mexico.
An Evening News and Tribune reporter recently asked Colgate officials about specifics of the layoffs, but the company was not sharing any new information with the community. Presented with an e-mailed list of seven questions about the specifics of the closing, company spokesman Tom Paolella responded only by writing: “As previously announced, the plan remains to cease production by January 2008.”
He would not answer follow up calls or e-mails.
There are concerns of what will become of the property once the plant closes.
“We have not been in touch with them or their real estate company in months,” said Clarksville Town Council President Paul Kraft.
Kraft said that he’s heard that a couple different buyers were looking at the property — possibly for industrial uses — but nothing has been confirmed. Companies that are interested in it are being quiet about it for business reasons, he said.
There are also historical factors being considered. The building that now holds the plant used to house the Southern Indiana Reformatory in the late 1800s. Colgate purchased the property in 1921.
The 60-acre property has been put on the 10 most endangered historic properties by the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, a private preservation group.
What would happen to the Colgate clock — a huge, illuminated red timepiece which overlooks the Ohio River — was also a concern. The company has told town officials it had no plans for moving the clock.
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