Courier eeditorial board
June 04, 2009 12:14 am
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It would be easy for the announcement of hundreds being laid off at John Deere Ottumwa Works to cast a pallor of gloom and doom on Ottumwa. We’ve been there before.
The John Morrell & Co. plant closure in 1973 came close to being a death knoll on our community.
The Des Moines River floods of 1947 and 1949 could have brought Ottumwa to its knees. But they didn’t.
As has been paraphrased before, Ottumwa pulled itself up by its bootstraps, took charge and improved the river channel to avoid such disasters in the future.
The government helped out with the construction of Lake Red Rock which helps control the river’s flow.
But make no mistake. Ottumwa leaders rose to the occasion and slowly but surely made Ottumwa as flood-proof as possible. City leaders and workers have continued that process as floods over the years have brought concern to Ottumwans’ safety.
We must do it again. We must persevere.
It took years, maybe even decades, to recover from the Morrell closing.
When the Geo. A. Hormel plant took over, we had to endure a strike that wreaked havoc, and later that plant closing.
Then we had Excel, and now Cargill Meat Solutions.
When contract talks come up at John Deere, rumors ravage the town — the plant closing, big layoffs, long shutdowns.
On Tuesday, the plant announced nearly 700 layoffs for an indefinite period of time.
The numbers point to more than half the plant’s employees or more being effected starting at the end of this month.
We’re sure it is gloom and doom for those employees, and we empathize with their plight.
The weight of the country’s economic woes falls heavily upon their shoulders.
Other nearby Iowa communities have been there and done that and are working their way through such local economic upheavals: The Rubbermaid and Knight Rifles closings three years ago in Centerville; Maytag/Amana plant closing in Newton; and recently, American Tank and Welding closing in Bloomfield.
The whole Ottumwa area will be affected by this news. Some Deere workers travel for miles to work in Ottumwa.
It is the workers, though, who deserve our empathy. They and their families must decide what to do now, to wait it out, seek retraining, another job or move.
We must rally to their side and help when we can.
As a community, we must think of ways to endure this trial without losing sight of what’s been done before.
Ottumwa has endured a lot over the years.
Somehow, we make it through tough times.
This is one tough time coming up, folks. The layoffs will affect all of us in some way. Let’s keep our chins up. And stay focused on how to work our way through it and do what we can to help those who have lost their jobs.
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