By Mark Laden
BRACEBRIDGE - After 32 years, Alcan Aluminum is closing its cable-making plant in Bracebridge. The 160 employees of the plant were told in early May that the factory will shutdown July 9.
About 70 per cent of the plant’s production is in copper wire. Alcan blames a continued slump in the demand for copper for the closure.
“The remaining production at the Bracebridge factory will be consolidated with other Alcan plants in Canada and the U.S.,” says company spokesperson Mark Osborne.
“Some employees - two to four - will be offered jobs elsewhere in Ontario or at Alcan operations in other parts of Canada,” says Osborne. “But the vast majority of the workers will be given severance packages.”
Osborne would not give specific details on what the employee buyouts would be worth, except to say that “the amount paid to each worker will depend on years of service and whether they are salaried or hourly rated workers.”
Most of the workers at the plant are hourly rated, earning between $17 and $20 per hour, Osborne says.
“Alcan is making every effort to make the transition as smooth as possible,” Osborne says. “We have hired an outplacement firm to provide counselling and help employees find retraining and other opportunities.”
Community leaders were taken by surprise with the Alcan announcement.
“We didn’t expect this at all, it’s a shock for the community,” says Scott Northmore, mayor of Bracebridge. “This will have far-reaching effects on the local economy. It will likely mean other lost businesses.”
Northmore has pledged support for the Alcan workers. “We will work with the provincial and federal governments to see that these people are taken care of.”
This is the second time in recent months that Bracebridge has lost an established employer. In February, 60 people lost their jobs when KKJ Graphics was forced into the bankruptcy. The sportswear imprinting operation had been in business for 25 years.
