Home > Bad news at Timken not good for Bush
By G. PATRICK KELLEY Repository business editor
Hello, Washington? Canton here. We’d like a few words.
"Greed. All it is, is greed," Charles Marling said of
the Timken Co.’s plan to close its local bearing
operations and eliminate 1,300 jobs.
"I’d tell (President) Bush that to his face," said
Marling, a 76-year-old retired LTV worker.
President Bush visited Canton and the Timken Co. just
over a year ago, touting the company’s values and
efforts to keep people working. Company Chairman W.R.
"Tim" Timken Jr. has pledged his support to re-elect
Bush, and Bush made Timken the chairman of the board of
the Securities Investor Protection Corp.
Marling said Bush’s visit was a "smoke screen" and that
Timken officials already knew they would cut jobs. "I
predicted that two years ago," he said. "That’s going
to hurt everything, not just the Timken people."
Walking at Canton Centre Mall on Saturday, Timken
retiree Rick Smith agreed. "They knew it was going to
come for years," he said. "They’ve been building up to
it."
Smith said he’s not sure of the company’s reasons for
the shutdown. "If it was for concessions, we gave up
plenty of concessions in ’82," he said.
Smith is a Democrat and said he wouldn’t be voting for
Bush in November anyway, but "We took a helluva killing
under Reagan, and it looks like the working man is
going to take a worse hit under Bush."
Eugene Kozinski, another Timken retiree, said he was a
little surprised by the announcement.
"It made me mad," he said. "Timken’s been here for a
long time. There’s a lot of young people that are going
to be looking for work."
Ray Jackson, who retired from Timken five years ago,
said he saw the move coming for years. "I was just glad
to get my time and get out," he said.
He wasn’t considering voting for Bush before this.
"Since he’s been in office, we’ve lost a lot of jobs.
They went overseas."
Sitting over a full plate of eggs, hash browns, ham and
toast at the B&K Cafe in Perry Township, 18-year-old
Jenna Holzbach said she’ll be voting in her first
election, and expects the Timken move to affect local
votes.
She hasn’t made up her mind yet, but the plant closures
aren’t likely to turn her toward Bush. A family friend
works at Timken and was upset at the news, she said. "I
thought it was shocking."
Electrician Ralph Burns of Massillon has done contract
work at Timken. "I think it’s sad because it affects a
lot of other people" like himself, he said. "There’s a
lot of unemployment in the area now."
He already planned to vote Democrat. "I want to see a
change in administration," he said.
Gary Meredith was at the B&K with his family. "It seems
like we’re going to turn into a ghost town with all the
factories shutting down," he said.
He felt things were taking a turn for the better, when
ISG reopened the LTV mill in Cleveland. "I thought we’d
get more jobs here, too. It’s kind of disappointing."
Luanne Heddleston, like most people, has friends who
work at Timken. "I’m sad," she said. "It’s the end of
an era, almost."
One point people aren’t thinking about, "I think it
would be good if everybody started to buy American.
That’s really hard to do today," she said.
She’s undecided about the election. "I wish I had
somebody I wanted to vote for," she said. "I’ll be
looking at them closely. Something’s gotta change."
City officials were shaken by the news.
"Everybody knows someone who works at Timken," City
Auditor Kim Perez said Friday, "and the effect on the
lives of the families and the effect on people is just
going to be tremendous.
"Nobody can ever feel that comfortable again. There’s
no guaranties in life any longer. Back when I graduated
from high school in the ’70s, if you got a job at a
factory it was assumed you’d be there for 30 years;
there was never ever any question if it would leave."
Timken is more synonymous with Canton than the Pro
Football Hall of Fame, Canton Mayor Janet Creighton
said.
Creighton’s father worked in the office of the Dueber
Avenue bearing plant for 38 years. Her ex-husband also
worked at Timken.
"It’s emotional because they’ve been an integral part
of our city for 104 years," Creighton said by telephone
Friday, struggling to speak through tears. "And it
affects every single person in our city and county.
"I was raised in a Timken household," she said.
Timken faced a tough decision, the mayor said.
"They are no different than what we have been saying in
the city of Canton," Creighton said. "They have to
change their way of doing business. They have to be
competitive. It’s a devastating blow but no one can
tell them how to run their business. They’re still in
Canton, they’re still going to be here. We’re just
going to have to learn to adjust here.
"For every step that we make now we have had to take
two steps back," she said, "and that’s why from the
very beginning I’ve been talking economic development.
And this definitely puts the pressure on me as the
mayor to recruit (companies) and on the new economic
development director — they’re coming in below ground
so to speak. We have a lot of ground to make up.
Staff writer Ed Balint contributed to this story.
You can reach Repository Business Editor G. Patrick
Kelley at (330) 580-8323 or e-mail:
pat.kelley@cantonrep.com