Layoffs Leave Families Struggling Over Holidays

Christmas could bring cold feelings this year for workers at one local plant.  This week, Tecumseh is slowing letting go of its 200 person workforce at the plant.  Back in October, Tecumseh announced their plant was closing its doors.  At one time, it was the largest employer in Dunlap.  By December 19, it will be empty, and hundreds of former workers will be jobless.

Both Tina Newman's son and daughter have worked at the TecumsehPower plant for more than a decade each.  But soon, both will work their last day there.  Newman says, "My oldest son is just devastated that it's gonna happen by Friday I think is his last day, and it's just real sad."  Sad for a mother who has no idea what her two kids, who have kids of their own, will do next. 

Newman says, "A whole lot of my family are there and have been there since it opened, and no other training they'll have to go back to school."

In October Tecumseh, which makes small engines, announced the shut down, as a result of a decline in sales.  We called the manager at Tecumseh but never heard back from him.

But we did speak with Sequatchie County Mayor Michael Hudson who says between December 8 and 19 most of the 200 employees at the plant will be laid off.  Hudon says, "It's devastating, devastating for them and Tecumseh has offered a severance package for them, but that's not good enough."

Hudson says they are trying to bring in a Volkswagen supplier and bring back some of the jobs that were lost.  "That leaves 2 manufacturing buildings open along with 40 acres of the site right off 111, 35 miles from Enterprise South."

But, that's still a few years down the road, leaving families like Tina's looking toward what's just a few weeks away, an unemployed holiday.  Newman says, "You never know when is the next minute that you'll still have a job."

Newman says her children will have a severance package, which does help.  Hudson tells us a few workers will stay on through April to help officially close down the plant.