Object ID: 751062

Object ID: 751062
Headline: Maytag shuffles the deck Iowa company plans job cuts, restructuring
Byline: Associated Press
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: June 05, 2004
Page: A10

DES MOINES (AP) - Maytag Corp. announced Friday it is cutting its salaried work force by 20 percent, or 1,100 jobs, as part of a restructuring. Maytag also lowered its earnings expectations, citing lower sales and higher materials costs. Maytag shares closed down more than 7 percent.

The Newton-based appliance maker will consolidate its Hoover, Maytag Appliances and headquarters divisions into what it said is a "one-company" approach, designed to improve speed and competitiveness.

"Maytag will be a much leaner organization, capable of better serving customers and more rapid decision-making," Maytag chairman and CEO Ralph F. Hake said in a statement.

Under the restructuring plan, the Hoover brand will join the existing business units - Maytag, Jenn-Air and Amana - within a single marketing organization, the statement said.

Maytag spokeswoman Lynne Dragomier said the reduction in the company's salaried work force of 5,800 will come at Hoover's factory in North Canton, Ohio, and its company headquarters in Newton. Maytag currently employs 19,500.

Maytag said the restructuring, to be completed by the end of the year, is expected to save $150 million annually.

In the short term, however, Maytag expects to incur restructuring charges of $75 million to $100 million, primarily for severance costs and asset write-downs.

The company lowered its earnings expectations for the second quarter and the full year 2004.

"This is the result of lower than anticipated sales volume at Hoover and Maytag Appliances, coupled with lower factory volume related to balancing inventory levels, as well as higher steel and resin costs," Hake said in the statement.

The announcement prompted Fitch Ratings, a New York-based bond rating service, to revise its outlook for Maytag from stable to negative, said analyst Tom Razukas.

He said failure of the company to significantly improve operating margins after previous restructuring causes doubt about its future.

An unresolved labor contract between the company and the United Auto Workers in Newton also concerned analysts. The contract was set to expire at midnight May 31 but was extended to 10 p.m. Wednesday as negotiations continued. The UAW members have authorized the union to call a strike if an agreement is not reached.

Hoover has been a challenge for Maytag.

In the first quarter, Hoover revenues dropped 22 percent and the brand lost market share in both higher priced vacuum cleaners - those selling for $300 or $400 - and at the lower-end pricing levels below $100.

As early as January, Hake had told analysts in a conference call that "the key to Maytag earnings recovery, simply put, is to fix Hoover."

Hake emphasized that Maytag is committed to its premium brands and innovation strategy.

"We have selected the one-company approach as the most effective structure to go to market with our brands and innovative products, and it was determined that this approach should dramatically improve competitiveness and position us for future growth," Hake said.

About two years ago, Maytag announced plans to close its 1,600-employee plant in Galesburg, Ill. Production in Galesburg is scheduled to end in September.

Maytag stock finished down $2.01 at $24.28 on the New York Stock Exchange.

---

On the Net:

Maytag Corp.: http://www.maytagcorp.com

Object ID: 776588
Headline: Door about to swing shut in Galesburg Maytag refrigerator plant expected to close within weeks
Byline: Associated Press
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: September 13, 2004
Page: A7

GALESBURG, Ill. (AP) - Mary Ann Armstrong expects plenty of tears this week when the last refrigerator rolls out of Galesburg's Maytag plant, along with nearly 900 workers whose paychecks supported this western Illinois city's economy for decades.

The sprawling plant provided 1,600 of the region's highest-paying jobs until Maytag began phasing it out two years ago.

Now, with few factory jobs left in Knox County, many of those workers will have to leave Galesburg to find similar jobs or commute more than an hour a day to John Deere in the Quad Cities or Caterpillar in the Peoria area.

Some, like Armstrong, plan to retire. Others hope the plant's closing will open a path to new careers - the state sunk $1.5 million into a transitional center that opened in April, offering career counseling and free classes in nursing, computers, electronics and other fields.

"Everybody is kind of anxious to get moving on with their lives," Armstrong said.

The city is hoping they will, quickly. With Maytag and another factory closing this year, unemployment in Knox County could more than double from the current 6.5 percent, local officials say, and tight pocketbooks will have a trickle-down effect on local businesses, real estate and even social services.

Uncertainty has hovered over Galesburg, a city of 33,000 people, since the announcement by the nation's third-largest appliance maker two years ago.

Albert Eddington, 58, knows what lies ahead for those who have spent their lives in manufacturing once the assembly lines fall silent, something workers expect to happen on Wednesday but Maytag won't confirm.

In the 1980s, Eddington lost his job when a Galesburg boat motor factory shut down and wound up mowing lawns and doing other odd jobs for a few months before finding work at Maytag. Now, instead of planning for a retirement of travel and camping, he's facing another job search.

"I don't want anyone feeling sorry for me. I just want these companies to wake up," Eddington said. "I think we somehow have to say to them 'Look, we need America back. You're taking it away from us.' How much profit do they need?"

Since Maytag announced the closing in late 2002, the Galesburg factory has become a symbol of America's loss of manufacturing jobs to foreign plants, even drawing a mention during U.S. Senate candidate Barack Obama's keynote address at last summer's Democratic National Convention.

It's a tag that rankles Maytag officials, who say Galesburg's jobs are being shifted to a plant in Amana, Iowa, not just the factory that opened last spring in Reynoso, Mexico.

"We are not the poster child for outsourcing," said Maytag spokeswoman Lynne Dragomier. She said more than 90 percent of Maytag's 19,000 employees worldwide will remain in the United States, and the company will maintain a presence in Illinois with a washer-dryer plant in downstate Herrin and its international headquarters in Chicago.

Some workers still feel abandoned and worry that a lack of jobs will mean pulling up Galesburg roots that stretch back generations.

"This is where they grew up. This is where grandma and grandpa and the rest of the family are. People don't like to be moved away from their home," said Dave Bevard, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2063 at the plant.

Others say it's part of a trend. Illinois manufacturing jobs have dipped by more than 200,000 to about 710,000 since 2000, according to the Illinois Manufacturing Association.

"It's the way the world is today. Maytag is in a competitive industry. I think it's a problem that's bigger than Galesburg," said Jay Matson, president of Seminary Street Ltd., a downtown historic district with about 30 restaurants, shops and pubs.

By mid-2005, Galesburg's job losses will deepen when Australia-based BlueScope Steel closes a plant there that makes pre-engineered metal buildings, cutting about 300 more jobs.

Economic development officials say Galesburg overcame a similar double whammy in the 1980s, when a boat motor manufacturer and state mental health center closed, eliminating about 3,000 jobs.

They say the city is better positioned to rebound this time, thanks to a new city-owned business park along Interstate 74 where construction could begin this spring. Officials hope it will draw small manufacturers and distribution companies. Business development and recruiting programs also are underway, they say.

"It took 10 years to recover last time. I just don't feel comfortable predicting we're going to do any better, but I hope we do," said Eric Voyles, president and CEO of the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association.

Robin Hanna, manager of the Rural Economic Technical Assistance Center at Western Illinois University, said the city is well-positioned with its highways, railroads and access to the Illinois River about 40 miles away.

"I have nothing but positive feelings about their chances," said Hanna, who has worked with about 300 communities through the arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

But Voyles said lean years still lie ahead for Galesburg.

It could be two or three years before the city feels the full brunt of the Maytag shutdown because of extended unemployment benefits that will pay workers for up to two years if they are enrolled in job training classes.

"It's going to be huge, just huge. I think a lot of people just don't get it yet," Bevard said. "But the community will rebound. We're survivors. One way or another, we'll survive."

Object ID: 512481
Headline: Maytag job migration worries many Manufacturer buys land south of the border
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: July 21, 2003
Page: A7

DES MOINES (AP) -- First two parts plants, then a refrigerator plant have marched on to Mexico.

Moving appliance production to countries with cheap labor has heightened concerns that Maytag may export even more jobs, fears fueled further by the company's purchase of 62 acres in an industrial park south of the United States-Mexico border at Reynosa, Mexico.

Maytag has two parts factories already there and is gearing up to move some refrigerator manufacturing operations in Galesburg, Ill., to a 160,000-square-foot plant now under construction.

A company that grew from making a few farm implements in the central Iowa town of Newton, population 15,579, to the third largest North American appliance manufacturer with a work force of 21,000, Maytag has drawn bitter criticism for moving jobs outside the United States.

Chief executive Ralph Hake, who joined the company in June 2001, is getting much of the heat.

"Maytag has always sold their name as the American classic," said Sue Wilson, a former worker at the Galesburg plant and now a special representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. "Maybe Hake doesn't understand the heritage he's inherited but the board of directors certainly understands that and to me they've sold the soul of their name to the lowest bidder."

Hake, who declined requests for an interview, told analysts in a conference call Tuesday that Maytag has no plans to shut down more factories.

"Our goal is to grow enough to have all our plants running well," he said. "I do not anticipate multiple plant shutdowns or restructuring here," he said.

The past two years have been challenging for appliance manufacturers and Maytag has struggled to maintain market share in the highly competitive industry.

The company, with second quarter earnings down nearly 63 percent from the year before, has cut 510 jobs or about 8 percent of its work force this year.

Maytag also had announced job cuts in October 2001 at the company's North Canton, Ohio, Hoover Co. vacuum manufacturing plant where 55 white-collar workers lost their jobs.

Also that month, 225 salaried positions were eliminated as Maytag integrated Amana Appliances into its operation. About 60 jobs were eliminated in Newton and 70 in Amana.

On Tuesday, Maytag said earnings dropped to $25.2 million from $68 million the year before in the April-June quarter. Included in the results were after-tax charges of $18.8 million for the closing of the Galesburg plant.

Hake stressed that most of Maytag's large appliances continue to be assembled in the United States, although some parts are made offshore. Even with the Reynosa plant in operation next summer, some 90 percent of Maytag's refrigerators will still be made in the United States, Hake said.

The exodus of manufacturing jobs from the United States to Mexico began about 13 years ago, said Mike Allen, president of the McAllen Economic Development Corp. The group recruits businesses for industrial parks in McAllen, Texas, and across the border in Reynosa.

About 204 companies, including Black & Decker and Whirlpool, employ 70,000 workers in that area. There are about 10 industrial parks in Reynosa, filled with "maquiladoras" -- companies from outside Mexico that take advantage of special government programs offering cheap taxes, little regulation and low-cost labor.

Workers in the Mexican industrial plants earn from $2.60 to $3 per hour including benefits. The average wage at the Galesburg plant is around $15 an hour.

Iowa Work force Development officials said Iowa lost at least 1,449 jobs from factory relocations overseas from the beginning of 1999 through June 2003.

The figures likely do not show all jobs lost to overseas moves, however, because they are counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics only when large numbers of workers apply for unemployment at the same time, said Yvonne Younes, market research economist for the state agency. Many employees take severance packages, which delays filing for unemployment, and they also may not be counted in the statistics, she said. Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 752696
Headline: Maytag will linger longer in Galesburg
Byline: Associated Press
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: June 15, 2004
Page: C5

GALESBURG, Ill. (AP) - A 50-employee Maytag Corp. warehouse here will remain open until mid-February, delaying the last phase of the refrigerator maker's pullout from Galesburg by about six weeks, the company announced.

Maytag had planned to shutter the distribution center by the end of the year, but slower-than-expected construction of a new warehouse in Iowa will keep the Galesburg facility open until Feb. 11, spokeswoman Lynne Dragomier said.

Dragomier said the Iowa-based appliance maker remains on target to close its Galesburg production plant in September, but no date has been set.

Maytag originally planned to end production of side-by-side refrigerators in Galesburg in September, but continue production of top-mount models until November. The company moved up the shutdown in May, saying market demand for top-mount refrigerators had sagged.

The area's largest employer, Maytag had nearly 1,600 local workers when the company announced plans to close its Galesburg facilities in October 2002. Layoffs have since pared the work force to about 1,000.

Maytag said the Galesburg plant was no longer "competitively viable" after competitors began cutting costs by moving production to Mexico. The company will shift production from Galesburg to a plant in Amana, Iowa, and a new facility in Reynosa, Mexico.

Closing of the Galesburg warehouse was moved back until a new facility opens in North Liberty, Iowa, Dragomier said. The new warehouse is within 25 miles of Maytag's Amana refrigerator plant and 85 miles from a plant that makes washers and driers in Newton, Iowa.

Object ID: 772908
Headline: Knox County seeks settlement with Maytag
Byline: Associated Press
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: August 28, 2004
Page: A10

GALESBURG, Ill. (AP) - Knox County will try to settle with Maytag Corp. over alleged back taxes on its soon-to-close Galesburg plant, fearing a lawsuit could scare prospective businesses away from the job-hungry city, officials said Friday.

State's Attorney Paul Mangieri had planned to sue the nation's third-largest appliance maker to recover $1.1 million in property taxes he says Maytag owes on a manufacturing plant that will be shuttered in mid-September, eliminating 1,600 jobs.

But the Knox County Board this week authorized its top prosecutor to first seek a settlement because economic development officials worried that a lawsuit could send an unfriendly signal to new businesses they hope to attract.

"No business looking for the best deal will look for it in an area that takes a business to court," said Kit Wilcox, president of the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association's board.

Mangieri disagrees, but said settlement talks will give Newton, Iowa-based Maytag "one last chance to do what's fair and just in this case." He alleges the company deducted more than $2 million in property taxes during the 1990s for warehouse renovations, but was allowed no more than $1 million.

Maytag spokeswoman Lynne Dragomier declined comment on the settlement talks, saying county officials have not yet contacted the company

Mangieri said he will contact Maytag by early next week and hopes to conclude settlement talks within 45 days. If the deal fails, he will again approach the county, city and other local taxing districts for authorization to file a lawsuit.

Economic officials have predicted unemployment rates could top 20 percent in Galesburg when Maytag closes the refrigerator plant and moves production to facilities in Iowa and Mexico.

Object ID: 770586
Headline: Maytag faces $1M lawsuit in property tax dispute
Byline: Associated Press
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: August 18, 2004
Page: A13

GALESBURG, Ill. (AP) - Knox County's top prosecutor said Tuesday that manufacturing giant Maytag Corp. needs to settle its debts before leaving 1,600 Illinois employees out of work.

Knox County State's Attorney Paul Mangieri said he plans to sue Maytag, alleging the nation's third-largest appliance maker owes more than $1.1 million in property taxes on its soon-to-be-closed Galesburg manufacturing plant.

Mangieri said the company was allowed no more than $1 million in tax abatements on new buildings or improvements over 10 years but deducted more than $2 million during the 1990s for warehouse renovations.

Maytag spokeswoman Lynne Dragomier said Tuesday she couldn't comment on specifics of the allegations until Maytag received more information from Mangieri's office.

"When we announced in October 2002 the planned closing of the Galesburg refrigeration plant we repaid immediately, in full, all loans from the state and city well before the loans matured," Dragomier said. "This is the first we have heard of an issue about repayment of abated taxes, and we are eager to hear from the state's attorney to understand the situation."

Mangieri said he decided to look into the company's payments after it announced it was closing the Galesburg plant.

Mangieri said he won't file the lawsuit until the city and township of Galesburg, Knox County, the Galesburg Sanitary District, the Galesburg School District or Carl Sandburg College gives him authority to sue Maytag on their behalves. The lawsuit might not be filed for another month and a half as Mangieri meets with each of those groups.

Dave Bevard, president of the International Association of Machinists Union Local 2063, said the lawsuit is a way to hold Maytag to the same standards it publicly embraces.

Object ID: 512814
Headline: BUSINESS BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: July 24, 2003
Page: C4

Maytag Corp.

Galesburg workers receive notice

Maytag Appliances has issued a 60-day Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, notice to about 380 full-time production workers at its Galesburg, Ill., Refrigeration Products plant.

The notice is required under federal labor laws as the company moves forward with plans to close the plant in late 2004. Production will be moved to an existing plant in Amana, Iowa, and a new plant being built in Reynosa, Mexico, affecting a total of about 1,600 Machinists Union workers.

Maytag announced in October its intention to close its Galesburg plant and advised that reductions in employment levels would occur in the second half of 2003. The 60-day notice informs workers that their last day of work will occur between Sept. 22 and Oct. 6. Wide-By-Side refrigerator production will end with newly redesigned Wide-By-Side units being manufactured in Amana, Iowa. Top-freezer and side-by-side refrigerators will continue to be built at the plant throughout 2004 on a reduced production level, according to a company news release.

Maytag plans to submit an application for Trade Adjustment Assistance, or TAA, benefits for workers affected by the plant closure. TAA provides benefits including job training and extended unemployment compensation to workers who are affected by changes in a manufacturing company's production plans due to foreign competition. Earlier this year, Maytag established a worker transition center at the plant and the company continues to provide job training and placement, tuition support, resume preparation and interviewing skills.

In addition, Maytag also announced plans to close its Regional Distribution Center in Galesburg, which employs about 50 workers in conjunction with the plant closing.

ISO 9001 certification

Stickle Warehousing completes process

Stickle Warehousing Inc., with operations in Savanna, Ill., has completed ISO 9001 certification of its quality management system. Certification demonstrates that SWI's program meets the standards of International Standard ISO 9001:2000.

SWI is one of the few warehousing companies in the United States that has attained this level of certification.

Object ID: 501600
Headline: THE ISSUE: Plant closing Maytag delivers expensive lesson
Byline: OUR EDITORIAL
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 11, 2003
Page: A6

Galesburg, Ill., is getting schooled in old-time economic development models and everyone should pay attention to this lesson. Our neighbor just 40 minutes to the south already shelled out $9 million in tuition for our education.

Their bill will get steeper after 2004. That's when Newton, Iowa-based Maytag will close the Galesburg plant, leaving 1,600 union workers without a job and saddling the city with an empty, single-purpose factory.

Less than 10 years ago, Galesburg and the State of Illinois assembled a $9 million aid package to keep Maytag when the company first threatened to leave the community.

Nearly $6 million was in low- and no-interest loans from the State of Illinois. About $2 million came from a special sales tax residents still are paying to support Maytag. The rest was in local tax breaks scheduled to expire about the same month Maytag will shutter the plant.

Galesburg couldn't have assembled a more generous package.

Maytag is moving production to their Mexican plant where $2 per hour labor undercuts any imaginable incentive.

There isn't much any U.S. community can do to dissuade a U.S. manufacturer solely focused on cheaper labor.

The problem is, we still keep trying.

Just days after Maytag announced plans to shutter the Galesburg plant, leaders in downstate Herrin, Ill., asked Maytag for a new wish list of projects for the old washing machine plant in that town.

The city and county hadn't finished the old wish list yet. Construction is underway on a new, wider road that will shorten the distance from Maytag's washing machine factory to Interstate 57.

Herrin's local community college subsidizes training for Maytag employees.

The community is particularly attentive to its largest employer because in 1994, Herrin lost its bid to expand the plant for a new line of washing machines.

That work went to the company's hometown plant in Newton, Iowa, where state and city officials included a $7.5 million deal to build the company a warehouse, move a rail line closer to the plant and build a new road.

Just two months ago, Rep. Jim Nussle visited that Newton plant to accept a National Association of Manufacturers Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence. Nussle pushed through $50 million in tax credits for appliance makers who produce more efficient products. The incentive will "accelerate the production and market penetration of leading-edge appliance technologies," Nussle said.

New roads. Training. Warehouses. Tax credits.

The lists never will end.

Neither Iowa nor Illinois' future lies with old-line manufacturers willing to swap millions in incentives and long-standing community support for substandard wages elsewhere.

Our incentives should be aimed higher, developing new bio- and agricultural technology innovations and creating a quality of life that anchors those new innovators to Iowa, regardless of the poverty wages that always will be available elsewhere.

That's the target to focus on as we build new museums and parks, and consider the proposed Iowa Values Fund. That is the new roadmap to our future.

Object ID: 639157
Headline: Maytag pulls plug in Galesburg Plant shutdown will leave 1,600 without jobs
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: October 12, 2002
Page: A9

GALESBURG, Ill. (AP) -- Word that Maytag Corp. will close its 1,600-employee refrigerator production plant by late 2004 sent a chill across Galesburg on Friday.

Employees, given the day off with pay after the early morning announcement, expressed shock, anger and insecurity, facing job cuts that will begin in the second half of 2003.

City and business officials in the Knox County community located 50 miles south of the Quad-Cities, shared their concern and began looking at ways to fill the void when the region's largest employer closes its doors.

Though rumors have long circulated that the plant might be sold, workers said they were stunned when Maytag instead announced that production will shift to plants in Mexico and Amana, Iowa.

"I feel like I've had the rug ripped out from under me," said Penny Shaffer of Galesburg, a Maytag worker and single parent with two teenage children.

Newton, Iowa-based Maytag determined the plant is no longer "competitively viable" in a refrigeration market that has seen competitors move production to Mexico over the past few years, company spokesman Karen Lynn said.

"We deeply regret that we could not identify a cost-effective solution that would allow us to continue the long-term production of refrigerators in Galesburg," said Bill Beer, president of Maytag Appliances.

Workers were angered that their jobs are being sacrificed for lower-priced labor in Mexico, where Maytag will open a production facility in late 2003.

Eric Voyles, president of the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association, said losing one of the largest employers in Knox County is a setback for Galesburg, "but we recover from setbacks."

He said the city was faced with a similar problem in the early 1980s, when a manufacturing plant and a mental health center closed, eliminating more than 2,000 jobs.

Through business recruitment and job training programs with local colleges, he said, the area has since expanded from 30,000 jobs to 40,000.

"We have a 'can-do' attitude here, from production workers to elected officials," Voyles said.

He said business and government officials will begin meeting next week and will work with Maytag to find a buyer for the nearly 100-year-old facility. Maytag bought the plant from Magic Chef in 1986.

The company will work with union officials on severance packages for employees, and workers will be notified of openings at other Maytag plants. Copyright 2002 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 502448
Headline: SOUNDOFF
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 18, 2003
Page: A7

Best revenge

So the CEO of Maytag says they have repaid Illinois their obligations with interest. Well, that's not good enough. A life-time guarantee and commit-ment to Illinois is the only thing that's good enough. That said, it appears that the Maytag workers' only recourse is to start their own company. Turn lemons into lemonade. Create your own company, make your own washing machines, make them better than Maytag and make that city of Galesburg thrive like no other. You deserve it, people.

Souvenirs or catalysts?

The students who went to prom at West High School deserve some kind of souvenir. I don't care if it's the wine flutes or beer mugs. As for me, when I went to my prom 13 years ago at North Scott High School, I got a wine flute, but I didn't drink out of it that night. I'm sure it makes a big difference as to whether or not a student drinks just because of what he or she got as a souvenir.

Keep it up

Alderman Ambrose, like always, you keep watching out for your constituents. And, like always, the Quad-City Times criticizes you for it. Keep up the good work, Alderman Ambrose. I really hope you run for mayor so that I can vote for you.

Talk about something else

I am so sick and tired of hearing about these prom sou-venirs. I graduated in '93 and they've been doing it since at least then. It's no big deal. Kids are going to drink with or without the glasses. It's not going to make them drink more. Let's move on to something else. They're making way too big of a deal about it.

Merging and McDonalds

I have to agree with the 'Merge maniacs' letter in the paper on Friday, May 9. I, too, have been going across the bridge for 13 years. I'm talking about the Centennial Bridge where it also goes down to one lane both ways. Yes, we all patiently wait our turn and then you can watch the car in the right lane come breezing right up, pull up in front. We all had to wait our turn. These are the same idiots that go into McDonalds, stand in front of you for half an hour, then get up to the counter and say, "Hmmm, I wonder what I want."

Feeling trapped

This is in regard to the over-pass on 5th St. I cannot believe that after all these years and all the trucks that have been ruined, jobs lost because of this, that they can't do more than put a few signs up along Brady St. It's not working. How long does it take to realize this. Men have lost their jobs. And, also, whose getting the money for repairing these trucks? Somebody's making pretty good money over and above what they normally make dur-ing the day. It really angers me that we're doing this to people that are trying to do business in the Quad-Cities.

Jumping to conclusions

This is Alderman Bob McGivern. Big shot, I'm not. In regard to the anonymous Sound Off in Friday, May 9th's paper, I and several oth-ers that needed to return to Davenport earlier than the bus followed in our own per-sonal vehicles. It would have been nice if somebody had just asked.

More friends

Vander Veer Park is next for Little League baseball. We are instructing all Little League parents of the need for two baseball diamonds in Van-der Veer Park. Vander Veer has 10 times the amount of open green space than Duck Creek Park has. We savor the idea of one diamond on either side of the fountain. We feel this would be a beautiful backdrop for both diamonds. Remember, Little League baseball does not need city council approval, nor do we have to hold a public meeting to build these diamonds. The elitist Friends of Vander Veer will not stand in the way of our great American past time.

Join the crowd

Palmer Hills Golf Course still does not have designated tee areas for senior golfers. Duck Creek, Emeis, Indian Bluff and Highland Springs have had senior tee designa-tions now for over two years. I think it's time for Palmer Hills to make a move.

Another victim

I see the train bridge has scored again. I'm surprised the city of Davenport isn't sued by trucking companies for failing to provide a safe passage for a normal-sized vehicles. The bridge obviously does not meet specifications for modern day truckage and I really don't see why they can't lower the road a foot or two. It's ludicrous.

A modest proposal

People who care about the atrocities inflicted on innocent, feeling animals have every right to speak up and voice their concerns since the animals, themselves, cannot. The March of Dimes can use alternative testing, but they choose not to. Also, there are charities out there that do not test on animals, such as the Birth Defect Research for Children and the Heimlich Foundation. You can live in ignorance or you can find out what's really going on. Also, do you really think we'll do cruel tests on humans if ani-mals aren't used? I suppose we'll start eating people if we stop eating meat.

Doing the time

I don't think it's right for community service people to be treated like prisoners when they're washing windows, vac-uuming and sweeping floors. We're not criminals so why do you treat us like criminals?

The effort that counts

My neighbors let their pit bulls run wild so I had to pay for a fence so that my child could go out and play in her own yard. So, I just want to thank Alderman Ambrose for at least trying to help. Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 590010
Headline: BUSINESS BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 14, 2001
Page: C3

Name change

Firstar gives way to U.S. Bancorp

Firstar Investment Services and Firstar Insurance Services are now U.S. Bancorp Investments and U.S. Bancorp Insurance Services. On Dec. 1, they became the first divisions of Firstar to adopt the U.S. Bancorp name since the February merger of the financial institutions.

Account numbers will remain the same for all customers and U.S. Bancorp Investments customers will receive the same brokerage statement and can access their brokerage accounts online.

Maytag Corp.

Galesburg jobs move to Middle Amana

Maytag Corp. has announced the transfer of 14 refrigeration engineering jobs to Middle Amana from Galesburg, Ill.

Company officials said the integration of Maytag's refrigeration engineering staff with the engineering staff of the Amana Refrigeration operations it acquired last summer is the reason for the transfer.

Maytag hopes to take advantage of common processes, systems, product platforms and components at the two refrigerator-producing divisions, company officials said.

Vince Lyons, Maytag vice president of refrigeration research and development, said the integration of engineering between Amana and the Maytag products supports the company's strategy to be fast and flexible in the development of innovative products.

Top-freezer refrigerator engineering will be performed at the Galesburg engineering facility, which includes a lab, model shop, and design support activities. An engineering quality and reliability support team will also be in Galesburg.

Side-by-side refrigerator engineering and development of new technologies will be handled in Middle Amana. Engineering for bottom-freezer refrigerators, which are made only at Amana, will also continue to be based there.

United Airlines

Business jet unit lands in Chicago

Avolar, the new business jet unit of United Airlines, selected Chicago as its permanent headquarters.

The 7-month-old United subsidiary will be housed in downtown Chicago at a site yet to be selected, the company said Thursday.

Avolar has ordered 306 new aircraft for its fractional business aircraft ownership. It said this week it is ready to begin operations, months ahead of schedule.

Avolar is challenging the entrenched charter business jet operation of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

It also is planning a venture using as many as 15 Airbus corporate jetliners to provide transatlantic and domestic shuttle service for corporate customers and other clients such as sports teams.

United's continuing investment in the new project has angered some congressmen and union officials, who criticize the expenditure of millions of dollars at a time when the airline is benefiting from a federal bailout and also has several unresolved contract disputes.

Object ID: 154211
Headline: Maytag aid is $6.4 million
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 15, 1994
Page: 04M

Illinois provides grants, tax savings

GALESBURG, Ill. - Illinois will provide Maytag Corp. with $6.4 million in grants and tax savings for the company's Galesburg plant expansion, Gov. Jim Edgar announced Monday.

Maytag announced last week that its board had approved a plan to spend $160 million to upgrade its refrigerator plant.

The announcement followed ratification of a labor agreement by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers that changes some work rules at the plant.

The company employs nearly 2,300 people in Galesburg.

Details of state aid for the pro-ject were not released until Monday. Edgar's office said the package includes:

Up to $3.5 million in job training funds through the Industrial Training Program.

The training funds are to be used to train workers in new skills they will need when the plant has been modernized.

Up to $500,000 in grants to the City of Galesburg to help pay for water and sewer improvements at the plant site.

Nearly $2.4 million in state tax savings from sales tax exemptions on construction materials, investment tax credits, utility tax savings and credits for pollution control equipment. The savings arise from the plant's location in an Enterprise Zone.

Unspecified help from the Illinois Department of Transportation for any roadway changes Maytag will need to make the pro-ject work.

Maytag's board of directors voted Thursday to approve the plan to stay in Galesburg and upgrade the plant over the next three years.

The company said it has to upgrade manufacturing equipment and processes to bring its refrigerator product line into compliance with 1998 Department of Energy standards and the upcoming ban on chlorofluorocarbons. Copyright 1994 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 507581
Headline: BUSINESS BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: June 19, 2003
Page: A11

Maytag Corp.

Machinists threaten product boycott

A Machinists union spokesman says a boycott of Maytag Corp. products made outside the United States could be tied to the start of production at a new refrigerator plant in Mexico or other foreign locations.

The union represents 1,600 workers at Maytag's refrigerator plant in Galesburg, Ill., which is closing next year. Production will be moved to an existing plant in Amana and a new plant being built in Reynosa, Mexico.

The union representative said the boycott would not be aimed at Maytag appliances made at U.S. plants such as those in Amana and Herrin, Ill., where workers are represented by the Machinists, or in Newton, where factory workers are represented by the United Auto Workers.

The Machinists union has put pressure on the company to save the jobs.

Maytag spokesman Kevin Waetke said that the company was going ahead with plans to close the Galesburg plant.

Wal-Mart

Judge:Recognize meatcutters union

A National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge has ordered Wal-Mart to recognize a meat-cutters union that formed at the company's Jacksonville, Texas, store three years ago, union leaders say.

After seven of the 10 butchers at the store voted in 2000 to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced it was closing its meat-cutting departments in favor of prepackaged meat.

In recent months, organized labor has escalated efforts to unionize Wal-Mart stores after five years of failing to even dent the world's largest retailer's armor.

Object ID: 501135
Headline: Displaced workers vent anger at Maytag Galesburg group attends annual meeting in Newton
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 09, 2003
Page: A8

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) -- Maytag's chief executive is defending the appliance maker's decision to close a Galesburg, Ill., refrigerator manufacturing plant.

CEO Ralph Hake told the annual shareholders meeting Thursday that competition from appliance manufacturers in China, Korea and Germany have put increased pressure on Maytag to increase manufacturing efficiency. Closing the plant will save the company $35 million, he said.

As he presided over the meeting inside a conference room adjacent to the company's corporate headquarters, more than 100 Galesburg workers and union activists protested outside.

"Some people are very angry, people are very upset," said Aaron Kemp, a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2063 and a Galesburg plant worker. "We have a profitable facility. We're making money and it's pretty sad they're willing to sell out American workers just to make more money when you're already making a profit."

All of the questions directed to Hake at the stockholders meeting involved the plant closing.

Hake said the primary reason for closing the plant was that it was building an old style refrigerator designed in 1994 that needed to be updated for the company to remain competitive.

He said the company's purchase of Amana gave Maytag access to improved designs.

Instead of retooling the Galesburg plant, which he said had quality and safety problems, the company chose to build the new refrigerators in Mexico and at an Amana plant in Iowa.

"Galesburg by far rated the lowest on safety," he said. "There were also severe issues with quality and it really was damaging our name."

Hake said he doesn't blame the hourly workers for the plant's failures.

"The truth is to fix our refrigeration business, which is the worst business we had, we had to fix it in both redesign and manufacturing," he said.

Hake told the shareholders 2002 was a "recovery year" in which sales grew slightly but earnings per share increased 66 percent.

The company opened 20 new Maytag retail stores and plans to continue to launch new products and improve existing lines in an effort to increase sales.

Object ID: 776589
Headline: PLANT HISTORY
Byline: Associated Press
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: September 13, 2004
Page: A7

A look at Maytag's Galesburg plant:

* Opened: 1986, when Iowa-based Maytag bought the plant from Magic Chef. Refrigerators have been produced at the factory for more than a half-century.

* Payroll: More than $80 million annually, according to the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association.

* Peak employment: 1,600 in 2002.

* Layoffs: About 600 workers have been laid off since the closing was announced in late 2002, according to union officials. About 900 will lose their jobs when production ends this week. About 100 will remain through the end of the year to shut down the plant.

* Reason for closing: Maytag said plant and labor costs were no longer "competitively viable" in an industry where competitors have moved production to Mexico.

* Illinois manufacturing: Jobs have dipped by 214,000 to about 710,000 since 1990, according to the Illinois Manufacturing Association.

Object ID: 744637
Headline: Maytag CEO warns against rising production costs
Byline: Associated Press
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 14, 2004
Page: A9

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) - Maytag Corp. chairman and CEO Ralph Hake told shareholders Thursday that expenses at the company's U.S. plants must come down for the home appliance maker to remain competitive with cheaper imports.

The company is in the process of closing a 1,600-employee plant in Galesburg, Ill., and moving production to Mexico. But Hake told shareholders attending the annual meeting there are no plans to shift more U.S. jobs there - although the company does have space at the Mexico facility to accommodate future growth.

He said Maytag is struggling to compete against cheaper, imported appliances. With labor overseas so much cheaper, he said, having 96 percent of Maytag's work force still based in the United States is "not an advantage for Maytag."

He also said that consumers are more concerned about price than where their appliances are made.

"It would be nice if people care where it was made, but they don't," he said.

Maytag is in the midst of negotiations with the union representing its flagship Newton plants, and cost-cutting has been a central issue. Hake said Thursday the Newton plants need to reduce expenses, but he also reiterated that the company currently has no plans to close more plants and his goal is to keep as many American jobs as possible.

Also Thursday, shareholders approved a proposal to have all members of the board stand for re-election every year.

Object ID: 531942
Headline: Maytag announces lower than anticipated earnings
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 22, 2003
Page: A10

DES MOINES (AP) -- Maytag Corp. officials said they anticipate lower earnings than previously expected for this year and next as the company works to compete better in a market driven by low-cost competitors.

Company officials said Friday they expect 2003 earnings of $1.62 to $1.67 per share and 2004 earnings of $1.90 to $2 a share in 2004.

The consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expected earnings of $2.16 in 2003, and $2.32 for 2004.

Newton-based Maytag's projections include a 53-cent charge this year from the shutdown of a refrigerator manufacturing plant in Galesburg, Ill. The 2004 estimate includes a similar charge of 40 cent per share in 2004.

Company executives outlined to financial analysts the appliance manufacturer's plan to expand market share and better compete.

"Certainly 2003 can be best described as challenging," said Ralph Hake, chairman and chief executive. "However, Maytag made great strides in cost containment this year, and we are beginning to reap the benefits of the tough decisions we had to make for the good of the company."

Maytag closed the Galesburg plant which employed 1,400 union workers and 300 management employees and moved production to a new plant in Mexico.

The company's Hoover division has suffered from increased overseas competition that has driven down vacuum cleaner prices.

A Hoover plant in North Canton, Ohio, laid off 500 factory workers in June but recalled 115 workers a month later. Earlier this month 30 salaried workers were eliminated.

Recovery for Hoover, which management acknowledged fell behind the curve in product development and pricing, plans to launch 20 new products in 2004.

Other Maytag divisions also plan aggressive new product launches including the housewares division where the company will market new contemporary art-inspired Jenn-Air Attrezzi brand mixers that sell for $349 and blenders at $199.

Maytag will begin disclosing sales and operating margins for major appliances, housewares, and commercial products beginning with the first quarter 2004 earnings report in April, Hake said. Currently, the company reports only home appliances and commercial appliances.

Maytag Corp. makes home and commercial appliances under Maytag, Amana, Hoover and Jenn-Air brand names.

Object ID: 676426
Headline: BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Business Journal
Publication Date: July 01, 2003
Page: 15

Maytag machinists threaten boycott

A Machinists union, which represents about 1,600 workers at Maytag Corp.'s refrigerator plant in Galesburg, Ill., has planned a boycott of products made outside the United States to save jobs.

The Galesburg plant will close next year, and production will be moved to an existing plant in Amana and a new plant being built in Reynosa, Mexico.

A union representative stated that the boycott would not be aimed at U.S. plants, such as the ones in Amana and Herrin, Ill., where workers are represented by the Machinists, or in Newton, where factory workers are represented by the United Auto Workers.

Ex-employee sues KONE over wrongful termination

A former KONE Inc. employee has filed a federal suit against the company's Coal Valley operation for allegedly violating the Family Medical Leave Act when it fired her in February.

Glenda H. Wiegel filed the suit in U.S. District Court, Rock Island, seeking more than $50,000 in damages, including lost and future wages, benefits and attorney fees. She was fired one day before she was to have surgery on a torn Achilles' tendon, according to the suit, which alleges that actions taken by KONE management violated the act. The suit also seeks Wiegel's reinstatement to her former position at the company.

KONE has not commented on the impending lawsuit.

Northrup Grumman to pay $111M in lawsuit

Northrup Grumman Corp., based in Los Angeles but with operations in the Quad-Cities, has agreed to pay $111 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit, which claims that TRW Inc. improperly billed the government on several projects from 1990 to 1997.

The suit was filed under the federal False Claims Act by a former TRW employee, which later was joined by the U.S. Department of Justice as a plaintiff. The company was acquired by Northrup Grumman in 2002.

Aside from the lawsuit, Northrup Grumman still faces three other federal suits involving allegations of accounting-rule violations and fraud.

Deleon Thompson relocates in Moline

Deleon Thompson Inc., an industrial distributor of cutting tools and coolants, has opened a new building at 4873 41st St., Moline.

The company was established in 1936. Business hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m Monday-Friday.

Several Illinois beer distributors merge

Rock Valley Beverage Inc., Saelens Beverage Inc. and Distillers & Brewers Sales Co., all based in Rock Island County, have merged to form United Distributors Inc., which will be based in Galesburg, Ill., and will distribute beer in a 12-county western Illinois market that includes Rock Island County.

According to company officials, the merger will give United distribution rights to 90 percent of all beer brands available in the market area. United will be affiliated with Miller Brewing Co., Coors, Pabst and Boston Beer. Stern Beverage Inc., based in Milan, is the Anheuser-Busch distributor.

Fulton industrial park gets steel packaging plant

Material Control Systems, based in Cordova, Ill., has announced plans to move its production of steel packaging to Fulton within the next two years, after closing a deal with the city to purchase 2.38 acres for $19,520.

Plans also call for expansion of the company by building the $350,000 plant in Fulton's industrial park.

Construction plans should begin within 18 months, according to president and owner Donn Larson, a Cordova native. The new plant is expected to employ six workers initially, but 15 to 20 additional workers eventually are expected, he says.

Material Control Systems was established in Cordova in 1989. The company designs and manufactures packaging called returnable packaging. It is used by suppliers to ship items to their customers. The customers then return the packaging to suppliers for them to reuse.

The company's production of plastic packaging will remain in Cordova, Larson says. He initially tried to find additional land to expand the plant in Cordova but could not find anythingsuitable for the facility. Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Business Journal , All rights Reserved.

The following fields overflowed:

SECTION = MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

Object ID: 590851
Headline: BUSINESS BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 19, 2001
Page: C5

Holm Industries

Galesburg facility to supply Maytag

A Galesburg, Ill., facility owned by the Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association, or GREDA, will become a Holm Industries Inc. production facility, the authority announced Tuesday. GREDA has owned the facility since July.

Production from the new facility will supply Maytag's plants in Galesburg and Amana, Iowa.

Galesburg competed with communities in Minnesota and Iowa for the facility. Holm representatives praised Galesburg's existing work force as a deciding factor in the decision making process. The Galesburg workforce recently was ranked as having a 93 percent efficiency rating, while the corporate average was 84 percent.

Holm Industries Inc. began operations in Galesburg in April 2000. The company also has an operation in New Ulm, Minn.

GREDA was formed in April 2001 when Galesburg 2000 Development Inc. and the Galesburg Knox County Economic Development Council merged operations.

Alcoa

Company warns of lower earnings

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. said after trading Tuesday that weak demand will lower fourth quarter earnings well below Wall Street's expectations.

The world's largest aluminum company said it expected fourth quarter earnings of 10 cents a share; analysts polled by Thompson/First Call had expected 30 cents a share.

Including an after-tax charge of $225 million from cutting 6,500 jobs at facilities in the Americas and Europe and plant closings and consolidations, the company will post a net loss of 16 cents a share.

Alcoa officials said slowdowns in the airline and automotive industries since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have caused demand for aluminum to drop.

Alcoa's third-quarter earnings were down 8 percent, but met analysts' expectations of $339 million, or 39 cents a share.

Owens Corning

Company names its new CEO

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) -- Owens Corning selected its chief operating officer to replace its retiring chief executive officer Tuesday, more than a year after it filed for bankruptcy protection.

David T. Brown will take over daily operations of the building and industrial materials supplier in January. CEO Glen Hiner will leave the company on April 18.

Hiner led Owens Corning through years of asbestos litigation that forced the company to pay billions to people who said they were sickened by asbestos.

Owens Corning eventually filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2000 because it couldn't stop the steady stream of lawsuits.

Owens Corning, known for its Pink Panther mascot and its pink insulation, currently is developing a reorganization plan.

Object ID: 537167
Headline: 60K workers still jobless in Iowa Companies leaving U.S. are taking jobs with them
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 26, 2003
Page: A11

DES MOINES (AP) -- Thousands of Iowans had just one thing at the top of their Christmas wish list -- a new job.

About 68,000 Iowans were without jobs last month, about 6,800 fewer than October, Iowa Workforce Development officials said.

Susie Wagner, who was laid off a year ago when the Tyco Electronics plant in Sabula closed, said there aren't many jobs out there right now.

"There's nothing out there," said Wagner, who worked as a secretary at the plant. "I'm not having such good luck finding a job."

Pennsylvania-based Tyco decided to move the Sabula manufacturing operations to China and this month the company announced it would do the same with production at its Guttenberg plant. The first wave of 100 layoffs begins this month.

Maytag Corp. laid off about 400 workers more than a year ago. Many are still jobless, said Pat Teed, president of United Auto Workers Local 997, which represents production employees at Maytag's appliance plant in Newton.

"Everybody knows somebody without a job," Teed said. "I know some who've lost their homes, their vehicles. These people have worked their whole life. A lot were either too proud to ask for help or didn't really know how."

Teed doesn't see any sign of immediate recovery.

Maytag will close a plant in Galesburg, Ill., next year and move that work to a new refrigerator factory in Mexico, where it already has two parts plants. Part of the Galesburg work also is being moved to the company's operations in Amana.

"The union has a great relationship with the company and is working on ways to take waste out of the production process . . . but when you sharpen the pencil, there's no way to compete with China or Mexico" without federal programs to encourage corporations to remain in the United States, Teed said.

Wagner said she's been looking for work in Clinton, Maquoketa, Savanna, Ill., among other places.

"I've filled out a lot of applications and had some interviews, but there's a lot of competition out there," said Wagner.

Wagner said she's worried because her unemployment benefits run out soon.

"I pray to God something comes along," she said.

This month, Jan Wagenknecht, 51, ends a job she's held at Norwood Promotional Products in Washington for 26 years.

About 200 people will be laid off next month from the promotional calendar plant that's been a mainstay in the eastern Iowa community for 100 years. The company is closing the plant and moving production to a sister company in Sleepy Eye, Minn.

"We knew it was coming, but it was still hard to say goodbye," said Wagenknecht. "There were tears. We've been through a lot with each other. We're a close-knit group." Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 511554
Headline: EARNINGS
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: July 16, 2003
Page: A11

Fannie Mae

Fannie Mae said Tuesday its profit fell 25 percent in the second quarter due to lower interest rates, despite the government-backed mortgage company's record level of business.

The Washington-based company had net income of $1.10 billion, or $1.09 a share, compared with $1.46 billion, or $1.44 a share, in the second quarter a year ago.

Analysts had expected Fannie Mae to post earnings of $1.87 a share, according to Thomson First Call.

In its core business of buying mortgages, earnings for the second quarter of 2003 were $1.86 billion, an 18 percent increase compared with $1.57 billion in the second quarter of 2002. Core business earnings per share for the second quarter of 2003 came to $1.86, or 20 percent above the second quarter of 2002.

Johnson & Johnson

Health care giant Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday posted a 27 percent drop in earnings for the second quarter as acquisition-related costs overshadowed strong revenue growth. The news pushed the company's stock price down 2 percent.

Including one-time charges totaling $900 million, second-quarter net income fell to $1.21 billion, or 40 cents per share, from $1.65 billion, or 54 cents a share.

The charges are related to recent acquisitions: $730 million for Scios Inc., a biopharmaceutical company that makes a potential blockbuster drug for congestive heart failure, and $170 million for Link Spine Group Inc., which sells an artificial disk for spinal surgery.

Operating income was $2.1 billion, or 70 cents per share, which beat by a penny the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. In the year-ago quarter, operating income was $1.8 billion, or 60 cents per share.

Chief financial officer Robert Daretta forecast full-year sales growth of about 10 percent and earnings per share of $2.62, one cent less than analysts' consensus.

Maytag Corp.

Maytag Corp.'s second-quarter earnings dropped by 63 percent from a year ago, citing costs of closing a refrigerator plant in Galesburg, Ill., and work force reductions and weakness in the floor-care business.

Maytag said Tuesday it earned $25.2 million, or 32 cents per share, in the April-June quarter, down from $68 million, or 86 cents per share, in the second quarter of 2002.

Included in the results were after tax-charges of $18.8 million, or 24 cents a share, for the closing of the Galesburg plant.

Excluding those charges, its earnings were 56 cents a share, matching the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. The analysts exclude one-time charges in their estimates.

Total sales fell to $1.16 billion in the quarter from $1.19 billion a year ago.

"Maytag achieved a respectable performance despite challenging second-quarter market conditions," said Ralph Hake, chairman and chief executive of the Newton-based company.

Maytag's home appliance segment, which includes such brands as Maytag, Hoover, Amana and Jenn-Air, reported sales slipped 2.7 percent to $1.09 billion in the quarter. But the segment's operating profit skidded 55 percent to $57.3 million.

Hake said while major appliance industry unit sales rose about 1 percent in the quarter, sales and prices of floor care products fell as industrywide sales continued to slump.

Object ID: 480490
Headline: BUSINESS BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: January 06, 2003
Page: A7

TCF Bank

Branches enlist SpongeBob for help

ST. PAUL -- TCF Bank hopes to absorb new customers by using SpongeBob SquarePants as a marketing mascot at its branches in Illinois, northwest Indiana and Wisconsin.

The bright-eyed, knickers-clad, sea-dwelling kitchen sponge -- SpongeBob is routinely one of cable television's most popular shows with its children's cartoon program on Nickelodeon.

Since Dec. 1, Wayzata-based TCF has been giving a SpongeBob coin bank or a SpongeBob video to customers who open new checking accounts in Illinois, northwest Indiana and Wisconsin.

Customers who sign up for direct deposit or debit cards also can receive a Make-a-Bob toy similar to a Mr. Potato Head. The giveaway is scheduled to end Jan. 12.

With SpongeBob out front, TCF is about 4 percent ahead of its new account goals for December in the three-state area, said David Creel, regional senior vice president of marketing. TCF opens an average of 19,500 new accounts a month, he said.

TCF obtained approval from Nickelodeon, which owns the SpongeBob image. Creel wouldn't disclose how much TCF invested in the promotion.

Maytag

Buyers cool after word on plant closing

GALESBURG, Ill. -- Maytag has apparently gotten the chill from some Galesburg appliance buyers since announcing it will stop making refrigerators here within two years.

Sales have cooled since Maytag decided to close the 1,600-employee plant and shift production to Iowa and a new facility in Mexico, said Dean Lindstrom, co-owner of Lindstrom's TV Video & Appliance.

"I don't have any figures on what the percentages are, but I'd say they're down some because of that," said Lindstrom, who has sold appliances in Galesburg for more than 70 years.

Other local refrigerator dealers, including Lowe's, said Maytag sales have held steady since the October announcement.

Maytag spokesman Jim Powell declined comment, saying the company does not discuss regional sales figures.

Lindstrom said Whirlpool and Kitchen Aid sales have increased at his store, and some buyers say they opted against Maytag because of the plant closing.

"They say as long as they're going to move out of the country they aren't going to buy from them," he said.

Object ID: 645331
Headline: Maytag reaffirms closing
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 19, 2002
Page: A8

GALESBURG, Ill. (AP) -- Opponents of the planned closing of Maytag's Galesburg plant finally got the meeting they wanted Monday and the answer they expected.

Company executives declined to reconsider the shutdown of the refrigerator production plant despite a request from local officials in the first face-to-face meeting since last month's surprise announcement.

Area political and business leaders said they were disappointed but not surprised that the 1,600-employee plant remains on track to close by the end of 2004, with layoffs beginning in the second half of 2003.

Now, they said they'll turn their attention to rebounding from the pending loss of the area's largest employer.

After the 90-minute meeting, local officials said they were encouraged by Maytag's pledge to open a transition office for employees, and by the company's willingness to help find some new use for the facility..

Maytag has already repaid about $4 million in state loans that were used to expand and improve the plant, said state Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson. The money was paid back four years early, he said.

The company also is being asked to repay about $3.5 million in grants that were provided for expansion and work force development, Moffitt said. Maytag is still considering that request, he said. Copyright 2002 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 636406
Headline: BUSINESS BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: September 26, 2002
Page: A9

Enron Corp.

Company's surplus goes on the block

The big "E" went for big green.

Enron Corp.'s trademark "tilted-E" sign sold for $44,000 Wednesday as the bankrupt former energy giant began auctioning off surplus items.

Jimmy Luu, sent by his boss at a Microcache Computer store in Houston to buy the sign, said he was told not to come back to work without the 5-foot, stainless-steel sign that once stood outside a downtown satellite office.

The sign was the highlight among thousands of items up for bid Wednesday and today, ranging from routine office supplies to kitschy items like stress balls, mugs and an air hockey table. The auction will be one of many that will be held to raise proceeds for creditors.

Bidders began arriving at 5 a.m., four hours before the auction began. The hotel was jammed with more than 1,000 bidders, with hundreds more in line waiting to get in as others left. An additional 12,000 people from around the world were registered online.

Earnings

First Midwest sets date for 3Q report

First Midwest Bancorp Inc. has announced that is expects to report its third quarter 2002 results on Oct. 23, prior to the market open.

The date will permit the completion of the management directed quarterly review of the company's financial statements and results of operations for the three and nine month periods ended Sept. 30, 2002, by its independent auditors.

The earnings release and supporting selected financial information will be available in the Investor Relations section of the company's Web site, www.firstmidwest.com.

First Midwest, headquartered in Itasca, Ill., provides commercial banking, trust, investment management and related financial services. The company has locations throughout the Iowa and Illinois Quad-Cities.

Maytag Corp.

Part snafu results in 140 layoffs

Maytag Corp. will lay off 140 workers at its Newton,Iowa, facility on Friday as a result of the delay in shipping the company's new Atlantis washer.

The company said the delay is caused by a problem with a part purchased for the washer, which will pinch the company's profits in the fall quarter that ends Sept. 30.

Ralph Hake, Maytag's chief executive officer, said redesigning the component will cost the company about three months' sales.

The company had already expected lowered investor earnings in July, when it said demand was slowing and laid off 300 workers in Galesburg, Ill., and 100 in Amana.

Hake said the company remains concerned with the rest of 2002, and officials said the company has laid off another 140 Amana workers since the July announcement.

"They've lost some market share in laundry to Whirlpool and that will likely continue through the end of the year," said analyst Laura Champine of Morgan Keegan.

Object ID: 158996
Headline: BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 26, 1994
Page: 09A

Pro-gasohol law has little impact

WASHINGTON - A 1991 law intended to get federal agencies to switch from conventional gasoline to gasohol has had little impact on government fuel purchases, congressional investigators say.

Gasohol accounts for 1.6 percent of the government's bulk fuel purchases, up only slightly from its 1 percent share before 1991, accord-ing to a report by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The general public buys gasohol at a far higher rate, 7.1 percent.

Gasohol, a mixture of gasoline and grain alcohol, or ethanol, burns cleaner than ordinary gasoline. Its use is promoted by corn states seeking to expand their markets.

U S West's cable plan is rejected

Federal regulators have dashed plans by U S West Communications to compete with cable companies in Iowa and two other states.

The Federal Communication Commission on Friday dismissed the telephone company's request to a build and operate a "video dial tone" network in Des Moines; Cedar Rapids; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Colorado Springs, Colorado. The network would offer video programs and interactive broadcast services through copper telephone wires and coaxial cables similar to what is used by cable companies.

U S West "had not provided sufficient information regarding esti-mated costs and revenues," according to an FCC statement.

Orders for machine tools are up

NEW YORK - Orders for American-made machine tools rose 2.9 percent in November, an industry group said in a report that suggested growing demand for manufactured goods.

The Association for Manufacturing Technology reported Sunday that machine tool orders totaled $370.25 million in November, up from $359.80 million in October. Orders were up 59.38 percent compared to November 1993. The monthly report covers metal cutting and metal forming machine tools, which are used to manufacture goods from household appliances to aircraft engines.

Galesburg OKs tax for Maytag plan

GALESBURG, Ill. - The City Council has approved a 1 percent utility tax to pay for a $2.8 million incentive package to keep Maytag Corp. in the city.

The tax is part of an incentive package put together for the city's largest employer. The company employs more than 2,400 people in Galesburg.

Maytag announced last month it would stay in Galesburg and spend $160 million to upgrade its refrigerator factory.

Object ID: 153839
Headline: Maytag upgrades Illinois plant
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 12, 1994
Page: 05M

Contract negotiations open door for refrigerator plant modernizations

GALESBURG, Ill.(AP) - Maytag Corp. has decided to invest $160 million in its refrigerator plant here, saving 2,300 jobs for the area.

A guarantee of labor stability for five years and an economic package from the state and local governments tilted the company away from closing the plant and moving the production facilities elsewhere.

"The mood is ecstatic here," Carol Yeoman, representative for the Galesburg plant, said Friday after the company announced its decision. "It looks like we're going to be around for a long time."

Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers gave overwhelming approval Sunday to an agreement on a new contract that expires in April 1999.

Changes in work rules will allow the company to economically expand production during peak summer months.

In the past, the plant shut down for two weeks in the summer for vacations. Now, vacations will be scheduled throughout the year.

"The recent changes made in the labor contract demonstrated our willingness and ability to work together on tough issues," said Rick Foltz, MaytagGalesburg's vice president and general manager.

After two months of negotiations between the company, the union and economic development officials, Maytag's board of directors voted Thursday to approve the plan to stay in Galesburg and upgrade the plant over the next three years.

Details of the economic packages are to be revealed during a news conference on Monday.

Mike Norville, president of Machinists Local 2063, said investment in automation could result in short-term job losses.

But in the long run, "there will be more jobs. We're going to make a lot more (refrigerators) because we want a bigger piece of the market," he said.

The company needs to upgrade manufacturing equipment and processes to bring its refrigerator product line into compliance with 1998 Department of Energy standards and the upcoming ban on chlorofluorocarbons.

The support of employees and local and state governments is "a very important step in the successful development, production and distribution of our next generation of state-ofthe art, energy efficient refrigerators," said Leonard A. Hadley, Maytag chairman and chief executive officer. Copyright 1994 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 112872
Headline: Maytag cost team wins award
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 13, 1993
Page: 05A

Illinois association sponsors team contest

SPRINGFIELD - A group from Galesburg's Maytag plant is one of two winners of the first Illinois Manufacturers' Team Excellence Award.

The Department 401 Cost Reduction Team from MaytagGalesburg is one of 13 teams operating at the 2,400 employee MaytagGalesburg Refrigeration Products plant. The team advanced to the final competition after winning the Large Plant Division in the Western Illinois regional competition.

Maytag formed the team at its Galesburg facility in hopes of bringing down the costs of its new cellular manufacturing process.

Team members addressed nine specific problem areas within the refrigerator door panel manufacturing process that increased costs. Within five months, the team had met or exceeded its goals by eliminating excess costs and operating 25 percent under budget.

The Craftsman Custom Metal Fabricators of Schiller Park was the winner of the Small Plant Division.

fifty-six teams entered the competition, sponsored by the Illnois Manufacturers' Association, and participated in six regional presentations. Teams were judged by a panel of representatives from the Illinois Manufacturers' Association member companies, university faculty, the Association for Manufacturing Excellence and the American Society for Quality Control. Copyright 1993 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 27286
Headline: OSHA fines Admiral-Maytag
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: August 01, 1991
Page:

GALESBURG, Ill. - Admi-ral-Maytag of Galesburg will have to pay a $3,486 fine for safety and health violations instead of the earlier estimate of $12,000, Admiral official Carol Yeoman said.

She said penalties imposed by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration were re-duced as a result of new evidence brought out at a recent meeting with union and management rep-resentatives from the company.

There were two chemical spills at the Admiral plant in June.

One was caused by high pres-sure in a tank, which activated a safety mechanism and spilled 650 gallons of a chemical comprised primarily of a polyol blend.

A second leak spilled about 400 gallons of the chemical from the same tank.

Both spills occurred at the end of the first shift, so second-shift workers were asked to stay out-side. No one was injured.

In the citation, OSHA crit-icized the company's alarm sys-tem and faulted the company for not having a hazard communica-tions program to educate employ-ees about chemicals used in the plant. Copyright 1991 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 777254
Headline: CUTLINE
Byline:
Source: Quad City Times
Publication Date: September 13, 2004
Page: A7

Object ID: 761859
Headline: Restaurant rollovers benefit Q-C diners
Byline: Craig Cooper
Source:
Publication Date: July 11, 2004
Page: B12

There aren't many two-for-one deals in the upscale restaurant business but the Quad-Cities got such a deal when two restaurants wanted the Redstone Building space.

The space in the former Petersen-Harned-on Maur building in downtown Davenport was a lure for two restaurant ownership groups from Des Moines. A series of related moves and changes resulted in both groups deciding to expand to the Quad-Cities.

James Foreman was the general manager for five years at 801 Steak and Chop House in Des Moines. He and the restaurant owner, Jimmy Lynch, were looking for possible expansion opportunities when they found out about the availability of the Redstone Building.

Lynch and Foreman expressed early interest in the Redstone space but the 801 restaurant's price point - $19.95 to $40 for entrees - was determined be too steep by DavenportOne, which was leasing the space.

"Tara Barney from DavenportOne came to Des Moines to eat at our restaurant. After dinner I suggested that we go a couple blocks away to show her what Centro had done with a renovated downtown space," Foreman explained. "It probably wasn't too long after that that Tara called Centro."

Centro opened recently in the Redstone Building.

Chuck Ruhl, one of the developers behind the Bass Street Landing retail, office, hotel and residential project in Moline, suggested that Lynch should still consider the Quad-Cities. Blue Ribbon restaurant will be part of that development.

There were more twists to come in the move of the two restaurants to the Quad-Cities.

Foreman told Lynch that the Iowa presidential caucuses were approaching and he wanted to concentrate on 801 Steak and Chop House during the busy season. The caucuses attracted political and media types from all over the country to 801.

Once the caucus season was over, Foreman was hearing from friends in the business that FIVE, the downtown Moline restaurant, might want to make a management change and there could be an ownership opportunity available. Foreman had never had an ownership stake in other restaurant positions and was looking for such an opportunity.

Foreman has been at FIVE for about a month as managing partner. Since his arrival, the menu has been changed and portions have been enlarged.

"I heard from people that they thought the food was great but that they left the restaurant still hungry," Foreman said. "We've tried to change that by expanding the portions. We had someone tell us recently that it was the first time they had ever taken anything home with them from this restaurant."

Foreman has added Black Angus beef to the menu, including a 22-ounce prime rib and a 22-ounce ribeye.

"If it was an item that was popular when we got here, we tried to keep it as a side or an appetizer," Foreman explained.

Foreman also has tried to find a better coordination between the dining at FIVE and the live entertainment next door at Blu.

"Business could be better, but so far the response has been good to what we're trying to do," he said.

Also leaving 801 Steak and Chop House in Des Moines were executive chef Chris Dennis and his brother, Brian, who had been the sous chef. They are now with Centro in Davenport.

Dominic Rivera, who was chef and part-owner of FIVE, has moved over to Savitri's in Davenport.

Benefits battleground

Maytag got the cost-cutting givebacks it wanted from union-represented employees at its Newton, Iowa, plant without having to write any job security provisions into the new contract.

Media reports indicated that many union employees were not happy with a deal that will require them to pay more for health care coverage and will switch new hires from a pension-based retirement plan to a 401(k) retirement package.

But the alternative to the new deal would have been worse.

Maytag has shown no reluctance to move jobs out of the country or close down facilities, as the people in Galesburg, Ill., found out. Workers in Newton finally chose to keep their jobs there.

People, places, changes

N Robert Imler, vice president of community and government relations for RiverStone Group Inc., is the new chairman of the board of the statewide Illinois Chamber. He was seated as chairman on June 18.

N McDonald's is open at the new Duck Creek Mall, Bettendorf.

N Red Lobster is rolling out a new LightHouse menu as a healthy alternative.

N Joseph Schurr of Milan and Douglas Grenier of Bettendorf have achieved Million Dollar Round Table membership. They are Modern Woodmen of America representatives.

Craig Cooper can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or ccooper@qctimes.com

Object ID: 754632
Headline: Obama plan would reward firms for creating U.S. jobs Senate incumbent makes campaign stop in East Moline
Byline: By Jennifer DeWitt
Source: Quad City Times
Publication Date: June 23, 2004
Page: A5

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's message that America should focus on creating jobs and the other needs of hard-working Americans played well Tuesday in East Moline.

Before a packed house of union members, party supporters, local and state Democrats and other political hopefuls, the Chicago Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate unveiled a jobs plan that calls for rewarding companies with tax cuts that create quality jobs in the United States and closing tax loopholes that give tax incentives to companies moving jobs offshore. The stop at the United Auto Workers Local 1304 Hall was among the final stops on a two-day statewide tour. He also was in Peoria and Rockford on Tuesday. On Monday, he appeared in Springfield and East Alton.

"I've been traveling around the state for close to two years, and the one common thread I get is the concern people have about jobs in Illinois," Obama told the crowd of more than 100 in East Moline.

He criticized the Bush administration, which has seen a loss of 150,000 manufacturing jobs in Illinois under its watch. Illinois is also one of just five states still experiencing a net loss in jobs, he said.

"Right now, part of what we're getting is a lot of spin out of Washington on how great the economy is," he said. "You can lose - as George Bush has - a couple million jobs and still pick up 1.3 million jobs.''

But the jobs lost, many of which were in the manufacturing sector, paid $20 to $25 an hour and had benefits. "The jobs gained pay $8 an hour with little or few benefits. It's not a tradeoff that can sustain the American way of life," he said. "There's a difference in the statistics in Washington and what's happening here. What matters is how is the economy doing for ordinary people."

It was a message that spoke volumes to the working-class crowd, every single one of whom raised their hand when Obama asked who knows a person who has lost their job.

It was fitting that he chose as his backdrop the UAW hall, which is just down the street from the East Moline Case, or CNH, plant, which will close its doors Aug. 20, putting the remaining 600 employees there out of work.

Obama offered a four-point plan "to stop the bleeding taking place in the communities of Illinois." He said the federal government needs to: negotiate trade agreements that benefit workers; close loopholes that encourage companies to move jobs abroad; invest in infrastructure by building roads, buildings and bridges "right here in the U.S.'' and create an educational system that prepares every student, preschool to college.

To create quality jobs, the government also must provide needed assistance to displaced workers and encourage research and development, he said.

"There's something fundamentally wrong with our economy when we're replacing good-paying manufacturing jobs with low-wage jobs and temporary employments. That's no way to build a future for a family or for our country," he said.

Obama was joined by three soon-to-be displaced workers from Maytag's Galesburg, Ill., plant, which is closing because the company is moving the jobs to Mexico. The workers, Doug Dennison, Dave Bevard and Aaron Kemp, all put a face to the situation touching many work forces today. Both Dennison and Bevard, longtime employees, also have spouses employed at the plant. Kemp, an eight-year employee, has a fiancÃ©e who works there.

"All of us unions have different battles we are battling, but we need to put down our union lines to fight this one big battle because NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) is coming to a town near you," said Dennison, the vice president of Maytag's machinists. "No job is safe."

As the last major company standing in Galesburg, Bevard said, "They tell you they're training you for new jobs. Where are those jobs?"

"It's high time we get people in D.C. who know what's going on with real Americans," Kemp added.

Jim DeDecker, one of the many union workers who came to show his support, agreed. A member of Laborers' Union Local 309, Rock Island, he said work has been very slow and there has been "a significant loss of man-hours. The State of Illinois deleted a lot of work it had planned."

Of Obama as a candidate, he said, "He's a very dynamic person. He cares about the working people â€¦ who are the backbone of the country. It's going to take people wanting to look at real people (to turn things around)."

"There's been a lot of jobs lost, but the Quad-Cities is not unique," said DeDecker, who has been a laborer for 32 years.

Jennifer DeWitt can be contacted at (563) 383-2318 or jdewitt@qctimes.com.

Object ID: 663827
Headline: THE ISSUE: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMEN
Byline: OUR EDITORIAL
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: January 26, 2004
Page: A11

Keywords: Local

THE ISSUE: Economic development

Don't wait for Galesburg disaster to strike

Think back to the Quad-Cities of the early 1980s and you’ll have a pretty good idea of Galesburg’s future.

Maytag will shut down later this year, immediately pushing unemployment above 20 percent. It would be higher, but some folks already are moving away.

Rep. Don Moffit is on a crusade to make sure the region’s Illinois economic development office gets located in Galesburg where it is needed most.

That appears to be a good start.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s statewide Opportunity Returns program will open 10 economic development offices across the state with up to four new staff members each. Their job? Coordinate development efforts using state and local resources.

Galesburg is at the northern tip of a nine-county west central region centered around Macomb. The governor’s designated director for the region is former Macomb mayor so, geographically, Macomb would be a sensible location for the office.

But this is about economics, not geography.

Moffit shows some savvy with his drive to anchor the regional office in Galesburg in his 94th house district. He believes it will send an inspirational message to city residents.

We’re not sure inspiration is enough.

In addition to development resources to replace the jobs, Galesburg will need more social services, help for schools and other initiatives when 1,600 working people hit the unemployment line. Property values already are declining, leaving schools in peril of losing property tax money at a time they need it most.

Moffit likens the office to a disaster command center established after a flood or tornado.

Good analogy. One big difference. The Maytag shutdown affects way more people than most midwest natural disasters.

We’ll join the legislator’s call to put the development office in Galesburg. But we’ll up the ante and suggest it be expanded to address the immediate needs of city residents waiting for economic development efforts to pay off.

Object ID: 653478
Headline: Q-C protesters rail against free trade talks
Byline: Todd Ruger QUAD-CITY TIMES
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 18, 2003
Page: A7

About 100 protesters from labor unions, environmental groups and political campaigns rallied Monday at the Quad-City Federation of Labor office in Rock Island, speaking against talks aimed at creating the world's largest free trade bloc.

Dave Bevard is the president of the International Association of Machinists, Local 2063, the union representing workers at the Maytag plant in Galesburg, Ill., that is scheduled to close in 2004. An article in Tuesday editions listed his position in that union incorrectly. Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 529240
Headline: Another job domino falls in Galesburg
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 05, 2003
Page: C4

GALESBURG, Ill. (AP) -- More than 50 workers will lose their jobs within two weeks at a rubber plant in Galesburg, a city already reeling from Maytag's decision to shutter its 1,600-worker refrigerator plant by the end of 2004.

Gates Rubber Co. will lay off 55 workers as it shuts down hose manufacturing at the Galesburg factory, said Gordon Hoffman, spokesman for the Denver-based company.

About 100 workers will remain to run a mixing facility, producing rubber that is shipped to other Gates plants in the United States and Mexico for hose and belt making.

Hoffman said there are no plans for further cuts at the plant, which once employed 900 people and had 370 workers as recently as three years ago.

Maytag, the city's largest employer, announced last fall that it will move production to Mexico. Nearly 400 workers were laid off this fall, and Maytag said it is on schedule to close the plant by the end of next year.

City Manager Gary Goddard said the job losses reflect a nationwide trend that has seen manufacturers move production to countries with cheaper labor. Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 526317
Headline: Maytag earnings fall 40%
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: October 17, 2003
Page: C5

DES MOINES (AP) -- Maytag Corp.'s third quarter earnings fell 40 percent, the result of lingering charges related to closing a refrigerator plant and other discontinued operations

and a loss on the anticipated sale of a joint venture in China.

Maytag, the nation's third largest home appliance retailer, reported third-quarter earnings Thursday of $36.6 million, or 46 cents per share, down from $60.8 million, or 77 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2002.

Included in the results were after-tax charges of $8.8 million for the closing of the plant in Galesburg, Ill. The earnings were down 10 cents a share because of the charge for the plant closing and other discontinued operations.

Newton-based Maytag said the results were consistent with the company's previously announced outlook, but missed Wall Street's expectations. The consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call, excluding one-time charges, was 57 cents.

Maytag shares fell more than 9 percent, or $2.61 to close at $26.02 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company reported consolidated sales of $1.22 billion, up from $1.17 billion a year earlier.

"We are encouraged by a strong third quarter for major appliances," said chairman and chief executive Ralph Hake. "Maytag Appliances witnessed solid gains in market share as a result of new product introductions within an environment of strong industry shipments."

Maytag's home appliance segments, which includes such brands at Maytag, Hoover, Amana and Jenn-Air, reported sales of $1.16 billion in the third quarter, up 4.8 percent from $1.10 billion during the third quarter of 2002.

"Hoover continues its recovery strategy and is planning to introduce two new low-end upright products -- one bagless and the other a bagged unit -- in the fourth quarter," Hake said.

Object ID: 676500
Headline: BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Business Journal
Publication Date: August 01, 2003
Page: 20

DeWitt's Guardian expands

Guardian Industries, the largest employer in DeWitt's business park, has announced plans to expand and build a $40 million coating plant at its float-glass manufacturing facility.

The expansion is expected to add about 50 new jobs to the plant and will include research and development

capabilities.

Equipment installation for the facility will begin early next year, and it is expected to open by the third quarter of next year, officials say.

Maytag workers get notice

Maytag Appliances issued a 60-day Worker Adjustment and Warning Notification, or WARN, notice to about 380 full-time production workers at its Galesburg, Ill., plant in late July.

The company is moving forward with plans to close the Galesburg plant as well as the regional distribution center there, which should affect about 50 workers.

Object ID: 515088
Headline: BY THE NUMBERS
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: August 07, 2003
Page: A8

While funding for job service programs and retraining is decreasing, there are more people of those services, employment specialists say.

Here's a look at some of the Quad-City area employers who have announced pending lay-offs:

Eagle Food, 300-350 layoffs in September

Rock Island Integrated Service, 120 layoffs in September

Maytag, Galesburg, Ill., 510 in September, 300 in 2004

Case New Holland, East Moline, 450 in June 2004

Rock Island Arsenal, 40-50 in June 2004

Object ID: 490133
Headline: Brazeway to close DeWitt coil plant 75 to 80 workers could lose jobs
Byline: Anne Dorpinghaus QUAD-CITY TIMES Clinton Bureau
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: March 04, 2003
Page: A3

DeWITT, Iowa -- Executives of Brazeway Inc. flew to DeWitt from corporate headquarters in Adrian, Mich., to tell employees that the plant will close by March 2004.

Brazeway manufactures aluminum coils for refrigeration units and employs 75 to 80 laborers in a weekday three-shift operation at the DeWitt facility.

The Iowa plant closing is a trickle-down effect from Maytag Corp.'s announcement in October that it will close its 1,600-employee refrigerator production plant in Galesburg, Ill., by late 2004.

Chuck Chase, the director of people and communications for Brazeway, and John Benzing, the vice president of the refrigeration business unit, delivered the news to DeWitt employees Friday.

"It was a difficult day," Chase said, adding that he thought workers appreciated that he and Benzing made the announcement personally.

"They were very nice about it," Chase said.

Maytag's Galesburg plant is the DeWitt facility's main regional customer. Brazeway traditionally has built plants near its major appliance-manufacturing customers.

Some of the work done at the DeWitt plant will move to the company's other sites in Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana and Mexico.

"We lost our customer base, and that was the reason we built the plant there," Chase said. He said Brazeway explored all possibilities to keep the plant open.

Chase said he believes a few workers suspected bad news was coming. "When they heard Maytag was closing, a couple of them suspected it," he said.

Brazeway's 40,000-square-foot facility in DeWitt's Industrial Park opened in 2000. The plant will close in two phases, with one cell of workers laid off in December and the rest in February or early March next year.

Brazeway officials are working on a package to encourage workers to stay on until closing, but Chase said he understands people will seek new jobs. The company asked the Iowa Workforce Development Office to help place employees.

"Iowa has a tremendous work force and has been a very successful place for us to manufacture," Benzing said in a news release.

Company President Stephanie Hickman added that "the most difficult issue is not the loss of sales or the investment in a new plant; it's the eventual loss of an outstanding team of people in DeWitt who have been loyal and successful employees to Brazeway."

Sylvia Banes, who began last month as the new executive director for the DeWitt Development Co., said she and people she works with at the chamber of commerce office learned the news late Friday.

"There's a lot of concern for the people (who work there) because the company has such a good reputation," Banes said.

Right now, DeWitt Development is focused on Brazeway's employees and not so much on the effect to the city. Banes said workers she has spoken with are in shock because the DeWitt plant was producing as well as it could.

Object ID: 649506
Headline: Future of town's grocery store lies in the balance
Byline: Joanne Carlson QUAD-CITY TIMES
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 14, 2002
Page: A6

WOODHULL, Ill. -- The fate of the only grocery store in this Henry County town of about 900 remains up in the air with the announced closing date of Jan. 6 looming.

Store owner Jim Brown attended a special Village Board meeting this week to discuss the situation. He was going to close his store three miles away in Alpha last year, but after he added a pizza restaurant there, sales went up 10 to 15 percent. Brown said that since the announcement was made this fall regarding the pending closing of the Maytag plant in nearby Galesburg, sales in the Woodhull store dropped 15 percent.

"I have to do something or I will be gone. I don't know what else I can do. I am open for suggestions if anyone has any. Between my banker, my accountant and myself, it looks like this is the only way. I don't know if the store is that marketable. No one I know is willing to take the risk."

Trustee Matt Gates asked whether it would help if the village bought the store building (which is owned by a Nebraska woman) and lease it back to him.

"Not really," Brown said, "not with the lease, utilities, insurance, payroll and overhead."

Gates said the town needs a store. Information about the equipment and inventory should be publicized in an effort to find a valid candidate for buying or leasing it, he said, suggesting it would help if Brown stayed open for another month or two.

Object ID: 639040
Headline: INSIDE
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: October 12, 2002
Page: A1

Assumption tops N. Scott

In a key Mississippi Athletic Conference matchup, the Davenport Assumption Knights rolled past the North Scott Lancers 49-21. The triumph by the second-ranked Knights keeps their record perfect in the MAC at 6-0 and bumps North Scott two games back at 4-2.

Varsity: D1

Plant closing stuns town

Word that Maytag Corp. will close its 1,600-employee refrigerator production plant by late 2004 sent a chill across Galesburg on Friday. Employees expressed shock, anger and insecurity, facing job cuts that will begin in the second half of 2003.

Business: A9

Mallards win opener

With one second remaining in the third period Friday night, Quad-City Mallards goalie Joe Dimaline blocked a penalty shot to give the Mallards a 4-3 win over the IceHawks

in the UHL season opener in New York.

Hockey: D3

Angels up 2-1 in series

The Anaheim Angels toyed with Minnesota for seven innings, then watched Troy Glaus hit a tie-breaking homer

in the eighth inning. The Angels then made two great plays in the ninth to beat the Twins 2-1, taking a 2-1 series lead.

Object ID: 176940
Headline: BUSINESS DATEBOOK
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 19, 1995
Page: 05M

Friday, May 19

Scott County Bar Association, Eastern Iowa Chapter of CPAs, Illi-nois CPA Society and Foundation and St. Ambrose University

seminar, ``Estate and Gift Tax Plan-ning Made Easy,'' 7:45-11:45 a.m., RiverCenter, Davenport. Infor-mation: Mike Jansen, 383-8940.

Midwest Chapter, Employee Involvement Association

quarterly meeting, 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Center for Employee Development, Galesburg Maytag Refrigeration, Linwood Road, Galesburg. Program: Suggester of the Year awards, tour of Maytag plant. Cost is $15. Re-servations: Cherie, (309) 343-0181, extension 2289.

Thursday, May 25

Iowa Department of Economic Development

small business col-umnist Jane Applegate presentation, 7 p.m., Iowa Commu-nication Network sites, including Scott Community College, 500 Bel-mont Road, Room 232, Bettendorf. Reservations: 1-800-245-4692. Copyright 1995 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 22816
Headline: Admiral employees go back to work
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: June 06, 1991
Page:

No cause found for explosion yet

By Doug Schorpp

GALESBURG, Ill. - Admi-ral-Maytag employees returned to work Wednesday, but company officials have not yet determined what caused an explosive 650-gallon chemical spill.

Company representative Carol Yeoman said no one was injured, but second shift person-nel could not begin work after spill occurred about 3 p.m. Tues-day. Several hours later, workers were told they could return to their jobs, but most refused.

"The cause of the spill has still not been determined," she said. "Officials are meeting today and I expect the follow-up to take all day.

"The spill was handled very well and the cleanup was com-pleted about 11:30 (Tuesday) night. We were able to resume op-erations about midnight, when the third shift began."

Admiral-Maytag's hazardous materials response team con-tained the spill and conducted the cleanup. The Galesburg Fire De-partment was not called to assist.

She said the chemical mixture that spilled contained a polyol blend, which is not considered to be a significant health hazard. The spill originated from a 4,500-gallon tank, which has a safety device designed to rupture if excessive pressure occurs, she added.

Object ID: 10866
Headline: Galesburg firm lands $1 million state grant
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 19, 1990
Page:

Admiral will use money for major modernization project

By Caroline Porter

GALESBURG, Ill. - The state of Illinois will contribute $1 million in grants and $3.5 million in low-interest loans to a major modernization project at Admiral Co. here.

The project will enable Admiral, a division of Maytag Co., to retain up to 2,475 jobs at the facility.

Illinois Gov. James Thompson's office announced Tuesday that the state will provide up to $3.5 million in low-interest loans through the Illinois Large Business Development program and up to $1 million in grants through the Industrial Training Program.

Those funds would be used to assist with the project, which includes construction of a new 118,000-square-foot building to house a door factory.

Portions of Admiral's $26 million modernization program were completed in 1990, but other parts were delayed as various alternatives for project layout and location were considered, said Carol Yeoman, a representative of Admiral.

On Monday, the city of Galesburg pledged a $500,000 loan through the Urban Development Action Grant fund.

In addition to the new building, which would replace two outdated buildings, Admiral will remodel and expand office space to accommodate its engineering, research and development department.

Richard Haines, president of Maytag, said at a news conference Tuesday, "This initiative is truly a vote of confidence in Admiral, in the Galesburg community and in the future of our industry. After a year marked by economic decline, lagging sales and production setbacks, it is important that we not lose sight of our long-term goals."

The new door factory will include a refrigerator door fabrication machine an automated door foaming machine and a new door paint shop, which uses an advanced powder paint process. Copyright 1990 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 10798
Headline: Admiral plant plans improvement project
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 18, 1990
Page:

GALESBURG, Ill. - Admiral Division of Maytag is planning $26 million in improvements to its manufacturing facility here, local officials heard Monday.

City Council members and Knox-Galesburg Economic Development Council were told Monday that the company plans to construct 120,000 square feet of new space and purchase new equipment, for a total of $26 million.

The Economic Development Council recommended to the City Council that the city lend $500,000 of Urban Development Action Grant funds, to be repaid by Admiral at 3 percent interest.

The company had announced several weeks ago that it was laying off not only some factory workers but management and office personnel.

A news conference has been called by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs for 9:30 a.m. today at Admiral.

Object ID: 2131
Headline: Galesburg school gets key pledge
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: July 24, 1990
Page:

GALESBURG, Ill. - The Galesburg Public Schools Foundation has announced that a pledge of $150,000 has been received from Admiral, a division of Maytag Corp.

The money will go toward the fund drive for construction of an auxiliary gymnasium and swimming pool near Galesburg High School.

The gift will be given over a three-year period by Admiral, which is one of the largest employers here.

Object ID: 777256
Headline: CUTLINE
Byline:
Source: Quad City Times
Publication Date: September 13, 2004
Page: A8

Object ID: 774993
Headline: A look at Barack Obama one-to-one
Byline: Matt Adrian
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: September 05, 2004
Page: A5

SPRINGFIELD - He is concerned that the nation's political dialog is sickened by a "virus that's filtering from Washington, D.C., this scorched-earth politics."

Talk radio and cable television shows may "dress themselves up as news," Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Barack Obama says, but he says their content is really "just diatribes against one position or another."

"Democracy only works with this underlying belief that we have things in common and we have rules of civility that govern how we operate," he adds. "Otherwise, it just breaks down into a shouting match. ... and it is always the most powerful who win in the end."

The 43-year-old Illinois state senator from Chicago enjoys a commanding lead in the polls over Republican Alan Keyes, a latecomer to the race after Jack Ryan dropped out in the wake of a sex scandal stemming from his divorce. The candidates are vying for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill.

Obama is scheduled to be in the Quad-Cities twice on Labor, first at the annual Rock Island County Democratic Party picnic at Illiniwek Park in Hampton, Ill., and later during an NAACP picnic at Sunset Park in Rock Island.

Obama and Keyes both are black. Both are Harvard Law School graduates. But that is where the similarity ends. The two disagree on seemingly every major issue. Keyes styles Obama as a liberal left-winger in the tradition of Ted Kennedy and George McGovern. Obama says Keyes represents the hard-line, arch-conservative Republican right - when he says anything at all about him.

But with the Nov. 2 elections fast approaching, Obama is mostly ignoring Keyes. He's concentrating instead on selling himself to Illinois voters.

The staff of the Quad-City Times Springfield Bureau recently sat down with Obama for this exclusive "One-on-One" interview:

Q: Initially, the buzz around your candidacy centered on the possibility you'd be only the third black U.S. senator since Reconstruction. Since your speech at the Democratic National Convention, some pundits are saying you could be the first black U.S. president. How do you respond to that?

A: I think a lot of that talk is really over the top. I'm focused on being the next U.S. senator from Illinois. That's what we've been working toward the past two years.

I'm gratified the speech was well received, because I think that means themes of our campaign are striking a chord. But the first thing we did when we got back was take a five-day, 39-city, 30-county tour around the state of Illinois just to remind everybody that our goal is to work hard on behalf of the people of Illinois.

Q: What are the issues in Illinois?

A: The first is the long-term, structural loss of jobs in the state, that fact that the jobs we're losing are the $25-an-hour jobs and the ones that are being created are $7- and $8-an-hour jobs. That's something the people are very concerned about.

I think they're very concerned about the ever-escalating price of health care - not just people who don't have health insurance, but people who do but who've seen their premiums and deductibles go up repeatedly and small businesses that are having trouble getting health insurance for their workers.

Q:: On the topic of jobs, when you were in Rock Island recently, you noted both the Maytag (Galesburg) and Case (East Moline) factories were closing. What do you do to keep corporations in America in this global marketplace?

A: I don't think there are quick and easy solutions. Some of these have to do with broader global trends and technology, but there are some things our government can do to encourage jobs growth and discourage outsourcing.

Number one, we can change our tax code to provide incentives for jobs to stay here at home. Right now we have a tax code that is backwards on that issue.

We can make sure our trade agreements are properly enforced so that when China devalues its currency by 40 percent, we're bringing them before the World Trade Organization and making sure that we have an even playing field.

The third thing is investing in infrastructure that's going to keep us competitive - bricks and mortar, bridges, roads, broadband lines - and also human capital, making sure we continue to have a first-class education system.

Q: Is it realistic anymore to look at the United States and Illinois as a manufacturing base?

A: I don't think it is realistic for us to think we're going to be the only manufacturing base in the world. There's just too much competition and we've got to have a diversified economy. What is realistic is for Illinois to be at the center of high-end, high value-added manufacturing and that we focus our attention on those jobs that are going to expand in the future such as bio-technology, nano-technology.

We've got terrific facilities around the state: Argonne Laboratories, Fermi Labs. â€¦ When I was in Peoria, I visited one of the top ag research laboratories in the world that helped to invent the penicillin we now use.

So we've got these enormous resources. We're going to continue to be a transportation hub for the entire country. We've got some of the best financial markets. We've got the best agricultural productivity in the world right here in Illinois. We've got all these competitive advantages, but we've got to make sure we're building on them.

Q: As you've traveled around the state, what has most surprised you most about Illinois - particularly since you're fighting the stereotype of being a Chicago Democrat?

A: I'm struck by how decent people are all around this state. The Midwestern values that I grew up on continue to thrive in communities all across the state: hard work, decency, common sense, the fact that people are suspicious of ideology or absolutism and much more interested in solving problems.

Q: For the better part of the past two years, the Republican spin machine has been intent on painting you as left-winger. How do you respond to that sort of absolutism?

A: The problem is that they make these assertions, but when you press them on specifics, it is a pretty thin gruel that they are offering up. I have worked for eight years in the state Senate, and many of the people who are attacking me in the political season are people I sponsored bills with.

I understand the necessity to politicize this race, particularly since the Republicans have so many problems, but if you look at my track record, I am not somebody who subscribes to any particular ideology. On some issues I'm quite conservative: I believe in the death penalty, I believe that there is an important place for the Second Amendment in this state, I believe that it is important that we don't think we can solve all our problems with government programs. I've said that publicly and repeatedly, and I've voted in that fashion.

On issues of crime, there are probably 150-175 votes where I've strengthened criminal penalties.

What is true is that on certain issues - like choice or common-sense gun safety laws - I fall well within the mainstream of the Democratic Party, and there are going to be legitimate disagreements with Republicans on those issues.

Q: When you speak in General Assembly debate, you seem to emphasize the points Republicans and Democrats have in common on an issue. Is that by design?

A: That's how politics should work. I'm not in politics just to score points or make other people look bad or to diminish them in some fashion. What I'm interested in is lifting up people and creating a climate where we can work together to solve our common problems.

Q: There are certain issues your opponent brings up in every speech. Let's begin with abortion.

A: I think it is a deeply difficult moral issue, and I simply think that women are in a better position - in consultation with their doctors and their ministers and their families - to make these painful decisions rather than government. My views are consistent with what a Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court has said, that ultimately a woman has to make these decisions because it is her body that's at stake.

Q: Gay rights?

A: I've been very clear that I'm not in favor of gay marriage. On the other hand, I really think these issues ought to be settled at the state level. I don't believe in federalizing marriage law. It never has been federalized in the past.

When you have huge amounts of time being spent by the U.S. Senate debating a constitutional amendment even conservative Republicans have opposed, I think that indicates that this is an enormous distraction from the work we really need to focus on.

Q: Domestic terrorism?

A: I've been extraordinarily detailed in terms of how I think about this issue. I delivered a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations that's posted on our Web site, a lengthy 45-minute address talking about my criticisms of the Bush administration.

Q: You've been critical of the Patriot Act.

A: We're struggling with the balance that has to be struck between ensuring our safety and security and maintaining our civil liberties. This is always the biggest test of a democracy. I think that we have to give law enforcement the tools they need to be successful, but we have to make sure we don't get so swept up in our fears that we throw overboard those constitutional protections that make this country special.

Q: Who are your political heroes?

A: We all have personal heroes â€¦ my mother and some other people I have known in my life. I guess publicly it would be Lincoln, Gandhi, King. I'm a huge admirer of political leaders who transform the debate. They don't just take the debate as it exists and work that, but rather they create a whole new language and a whole new way of thinking about our obligations to each other and our ideals.

Q: What led you to politics?

A: When I got out of college, I became very interested in how do I apply the values I care about: equality, fairness, giving all people opportunity. I decided to work at the grass-roots level, so I was a community organizer for 3 1/2 years before I went to law school. And that's how I originally came to Chicago, working for the Developing Communities Project, a church-based organization out on the far South Side of Chicago that was focused on creating job-training programs for people who'd lost their jobs in the steel plants and bringing afterschool programs and youth programs into the community.

Q: What did you learn from that?

A: That ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they are given the opportunity.

Matt Adrian can be contacted at (217) 753-1410 or matt.adrian@lee.net.

Object ID: 755088
Headline: Cabela's angles for cash to grow
Byline: Craig Cooper
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: June 27, 2004
Page: B10

SIXTY miles south of Owatonna, Minn., the conversation goes this way:

"So, are we stopping?"

"I could use a few things and it's lunch time anyway. We'll need gas by then."

No other discussion is necessary. There is no question what we're talking about. We almost always stop.

The south central town in Minnesota may be best known in business as the home of Federated Insurance, but outdoor enthusiasts know Owatonna as the home of one of the showcases of Cabela's, a Nebraska-based, outdoor sports retailer that went from private ownership to public with a flurry of activity on Friday.

By the time they reach the door of the 150,000 square foot store, hunters and anglers can have eyes as wide as a doe in the headlights and may be making funny growling noises like those made by a northern pike that has just figured out it is out of the water.

Greeting 4 million outdoor sports enthusiasts who each year visit the Owatonna store are huge bronze statues of deer, and fishing boat bargains in the parking lot.

Inside the massive building is everything imaginable for outdoor sports with a few unique twists, or in this case, twister tails.

There are floor-to-ceiling aquariums with lunker crappies, walleyes and bass swimming around. Crowds gather at feeding time as dozens of minnows are tossed in for the trophy fish.

Throughout the building are replicas of game animals. There is a mini-mountain with sheep and other species.

On the second level there is an extensive camping session, outdoor artwork gallery and a restaurant serving camp staples like chili, burgers and buffalo brats. There are collectable prints and gifts just inside the front door. I know that from the art and bear figurines scattered around our home.

Not everything is bargain priced, but everything is available.

Camo is not a color at Cabela's, it is a lifestyle.

The stores are designed to be destinations. The Owatonna store has two adjacent hotels - Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn - a fast food restaurant, a steakhouse, a Cabela's outlet store, a liquor store, a Kwik Trip auto and truck plaza and a Russell Stover Candies outlet.

To expand the way the company would like to and remain competitive with Bass Pro Shops, Gander Mountain and discount retailers, Cabela's decided it needed capital. Outdoors enthusiasts who seemingly have everything now can own a piece of Cabela's.

The company, which was in a quiet period last week before its initial public offering of stock, hoped to raise more than $130 million from the IPO to build new stores. The results were much better than that.

Initially shares were projected to be priced in the $15 to $17 range. That was raised to $19-$20. When it opened on Friday after overnight trading, Cabela's (NYSE: CAB) shares were going for $27.95 and fell later in early profit taking.

According to Hoover's Online, the company had 2003 sales of $1.4 billion and net income of $51.4 million. Net income growth in the year was 9.5 percent.

Hopefully the capital from the stock sale will allow Cabela's to add the Quad-Cities to its expansion plans. The closest store to the Quad-Cities is in Prairie du Chien, Wis., and it is an understated store of about 40,000 square feet. A store here could potentially become a regional destination for outdoor enthusiasts.

More strike backlash

The Southern California grocery strike was costly to Kroger Co. The Cincinnati-based company that is one of the nation's largest grocery retailers saw its earnings fall 25 percent in the first quarter.

Earnings were $262.8 million for the period ending May 22. Earnings were $351.5 million for the same quarter of 2003.

In the Quad-Cities, Kroger holdings include Kwik Shop stores and Fred Meyer Jewelers at NorthPark and SouthPark malls.

People, places, changes

* Big League Barbers is open in the new Prairie Ridge retail center on 5262 Utica Ridge Road, Davenport. The telephone number is (563) 359-7247.

* The renovation of the Residence Inn in Davenport is complete. The rooms and hallways were completely redone, including beds, wall coverings, carpeting and furniture.

* Fitness Xpress has opened at 109 B E. 50th St., Davenport. The club in the former Ben Franklin store has an 8,700-square-foot workout space, child care, tanning and personal trainers. The monthly fee for adults is $19 and family members can be added for as little as $5 monthly. The telephone number is (563) 386-2348.

* Maytag is planning a job fair for displaced workers at the Galesburg, Ill., facility it is closing on Aug. 18. Skilled workers in accounting, purchasing, engineering, welding and other positions will be able to go through on-the-spot interviews. The job fair will be held at the plant.

* Kate Schwennsen, a native of Dubuque, Iowa, whose parents and in-laws live in Davenport, will be national president of the American Institute of Architects in 2006 after serving in 2005 as first vice president. Schwennsen will be just the second female in the history of the organization to be president. Schwennsen is associate dean of the Iowa State University College of Design and associate professor of architecture.

Craig Cooper can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or ccooper@qctimes.com.

Object ID: 748168
Headline: Jobless rate falls to 4.8%
Byline: Quad-City Times Staff
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 29, 2004
Page: A11

Unemployment in the Quad-Cities fell to 4.8 percent in April, the lowest for the month since 2001, as seasonal construction and leisure and hospitality hiring rose.

The 4.8 percent rate was 0.6 percent lower than in March and 0.2 lower than for April 2003. The rate in April 2001 was 4.1 percent.

The April rate in Scott County was 4.2 percent, down 0.5 from March and the same as last April. Rock Island County's rate was 4.7 for the month compared to 5.4 in March and 5.3 in April 2003.

Galesburg and Knox County continued to be hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs, particularly jobs at Maytag. Galesburg's rate of 8.9 percent compared with 8.6 in March and 7.9 in April, 2003.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security reported seasonal job gains of 600 in construction and 700 in the leisure-hospitality sector. There were 100 fewer jobs in the information sector.

Object ID: 679266
Headline: Job training experts help DeWitt workers Some getting back on the job after learning new skills
Byline: Anne Dorpinghaus
Source:
Publication Date: March 03, 2004
Page: A3

DeWITT, Iowa - After three separate businesses in DeWitt closed in December, creating more than 120 layoffs, many of the displaced workers turned to Eastern Iowa Job Training, a branch of Iowa Workforce Development.

Job training counselors from Clinton assisted many of the newly unemployed. Through some quick action, 16 former Johnston IndustriesInc. employees began a welding class at the Manufacturing Technology Center in Davenport just hours after completing their last shifts at Johnston.

The plant, which made padding for mattresses, closed after its parent company declared bankruptcy. On Dec. 15, the DeWitt operations ceased, leaving 37 workers unemployed. Cindy Van Zuiden, Johnston's human resources manager, said notice of the closing came as a surprise in late November.

"We were very, very profitable here at DeWitt," Van Zuiden said.

A group of Johnston workers decided to take the welding class, hoping to qualify for openings at Deere & Co. Job counselors went to the DeWitt plant to screen and enroll students, and funds were provided for registration and tuition.

"Our job was to make sure those opportunities were fulfilled," said Wanda Wyatt-Hardwick, EIJT lead supervisor.

Pete Petersen, 43, of Clinton was a production manager at Johnston for 16 years. He passed the 115-hour welding class and reported for his first day of work for Deere Harvester Works in East Moline last week.

Petersen said he is excited about his new job and has been told to expect overtime hours to meet Deere's production needs. He knows of at least two other Johnston colleagues hired by Deere.

Steven Cuesta, who worked for Johnston for 11 years, decided to go back to school for a two-year degree in electronics. Job training staff helped Johnston workers use an early intervention grant received on their behalf and to obtain funds for classes in welding, computers, electronics and in one case, English as a Second Language.

Brazeway Inc. closed its DeWitt plant Dec. 31 after Maytag Corp. moved its production from Galesburg, Ill., to Mexico. Brazeway manufactured aluminum coils for refrigerators.

Iowa Workforce Development sent in a rapid-response team to meet with Brazeway managers early in 2003 to plan for the December closing.

"We actually put staff on-site for the last three weeks in December," Wyatt-Hardwick said. Counselors helped Brazeway employees complete applications, resumes and assessments during their last weeks of work.

"The unique thing about Brazeway is they qualify under NAFTA for benefits," Wyatt-Hardwick said.

Because their jobs were lost to Mexico, displaced workers can receive tuition assistance, additional unemployment benefits and health insurance through the federal Transitional Adjustment Assistance program. Several Brazeway employees enrolled in a two-year training program, using benefits guaranteed through the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"They deserve everything the federal government offers," Wyatt-Hardwick said. "Every worker at Brazeway is eligible. It's a great program."

Rayna Singleton, 28, of Clinton worked at Brazeway for three years. When she learned of the plant closing, she went back to school, juggling college and work for several months. Now she is working as an intern at the Annie Wittenmyer Complex in Davenport and will earn a bachelor's degree in psychology from St. Ambrose University in December, with plans to continue for a master's degree in social work.

"It was the best thing to happen for me because I really needed a kick in the butt to go back to school," Singleton said.

Sylvia Banes, executive director of DeWitt Development Co., said most of the 75 Brazeway employees who lost their jobs live in Clinton County, with about five from DeWitt.

She said the development company is trying to find buyers for the two vacant buildings, along with a spec building at Crossroads Business Park, "so we can create more jobs in DeWitt."

Van Zuiden said there has been some interest in the Johnston building. Their workforce included residents of DeWitt, outlying Clinton County and Jackson County.

Wyatt-Hardwick also took information to the 20 part-time and full-time employees who lost their jobs when Skeffington's Grocery and Deli closed in early December. A few have been to the Clinton office, seeking assistance.

The EIJC resource room, equipped with computers, is available to job-hunters to access the Internet, create resumes and attend workshops. A job club meets monthly. Wyatt-Hardwick said mock interviews are one service that became especially popular after International Paper Corp. closed its Clinton plant in 2001.

"We found that people hadn't been on an interview in 20 to 30 years, and they were just petrified," Wyatt-Hardwick said. Interviewers from area temporary agencies helped job-seekers hone their skills.

"Nowadays, the market is so competitive, we try to give them an edge," Wyatt-Hardwick said.

Another edge through EIJT is a 50 percent wage reimbursement for new employers during an initial training period.

Van Zuiden was so impressed with the aid offered to Johnston employees that she traveled to Des Moines in January to meet with Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., a member of Sen. John Kerry's staff and others.

"We were making a political plea to keep funding for the dislocated worker program," Van Zuiden said.

The city desk can be contacted at (563) 383-2245 or newsroom@qctimes.com.

Object ID: 664000
Headline: DISPLACED WORKERS HEAD TO DEER
Byline: Jennifer DeWitt
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: January 27, 2004
Page: A2

Displaced workers head to Deere

Quad-City Times

When Esteban Gomez graduated from high school in 1999, he hoped to carry on the family tradition and go to work for Deere & Co.

But the young man, who had picked up welding skills at United Township High School, quickly discovered Deere wasn't hiring.

So as the farm economy continued a downturn, he accepted a job at the Oscar Mayer plant in Davenport and then a welding job in Bettendorf. But working at Deere remained his goal.

Now Gomez, who has been a welder for John Deere Seeding Group for the past seven months, is exactly the type of new employee the equipment-maker is looking to recruit as it faces a worker shortage because of its graying work force. His welding skills are a definite plus as the company struggles to find experienced welders.

"My brother's a welder for Deere. My father's an assembler. So we've kept it in the family," said Gomez, 23, of Davenport.

Gomez, who first applied three years ago at Deere, said "Now they're doing a lot of hiring, which is great for the economy because there's a lot of people laid off."

Deere's hiring needs also come at an ideal time for area workers who have been displaced by plant closures, company bankruptcies and other layoffs sparked by the weakened economy.

Laid off after 6 1/2 years from Maytag in Galesburg, Ill., Brian Alderson knew he would have to find work away from his Galesburg home. "I'm happy to be here," the 28-year-old man said Monday on his first day of orientation at John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline, where he has been hired as a welder.

"I didn't expect Deere to be hiring," he said. "I was going to go to school if I didn't find a job."

The story was similar for Jeri Page of Rio, Ill., who also was displaced by Maytag's decision to move to Mexico. However, the 43-year-old wife and mother of two teenage sons did not wait to be laid off, applying at Deere last March. She has been an assembler on the combine production line at Harvester Works since late October.

Though she did assembly work at Maytag, she said "It's a lot bigger machinery here. I enjoy it."

Her commute now is about 35 minutes longer, but Page hopes to do what she thought she would at Maytag -- retire. She had 14 1/2 years in at Maytag. "I just hope it lasts longer," she said of her Deere job.

Jennifer DeWitt can be contacted at (563) 383-2318 or jdewitt@qctimes.com.

Object ID: 663996
Headline: DEERE TO HIRE 300 WORKERS THIS
Byline: Jennifer DeWitt
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: January 27, 2004
Page: A1

Keywords: Local

Deere to hire 300 workers this year

Massive recruiting effort will continue over 5 years

Quad-City Times

With hundreds of workers at Deere & Co.'s Quad-City manufacturing plants nearing retirement, the search is on for new employees to replace them over the next five years.

Already the Quad-Cities' largest employer, Deere officials said Monday that the company will be hiring at a rate of about 300 people a year in order to repopulate the employee ranks of its four area manufacturing plants.

"Some of this is being driven by production, but primarily it is the large number of people becoming eligible for retirement," said Andre Harrison, the manager of industrial relations at John Deere Harvester Works in East Moline.

Harrison is part of a team -- made up of management, union representatives and plant employees -- responsible for the massive recruitment effort under way to replenish the work force. "We saw this coming several years ago," he said, explaining that recruiting has been a long-term strategy.

Last year, Deere hired about 260 employees to work at the four Quad-City plants: Davenport Works, Harvester Works in East Moline and at the Seeding Group and Cylinder Division, both in Moline. Another 250 to 300 are expected to be hired this year and the company then projects hiring another 300 a year from 2005 to 2008.

The Moline-based manufacturer has not seen such a hiring effort since the 1970s, and it is because of the retirement of those hires that it now finds itself in such an aggressive hiring mode.

"The company and the United Auto Workers have worked together to come up with some innovative ideas," Harrison said.

Workers are being hired for welding, assembly and machining positions. "We've seen that welders appear to be the skill set most lacking (among recruits)," said Mike O'Brien, an assembler and recruiter at Davenport Works.

To help remedy that, as well as to identify and develop other production employees, Deere has a number of partnerships with colleges around the bistate area. The company also has been reaching out to a number of unemployed workers who have been displaced by plant closures and other layoffs.

"All things considered, these are very good union jobs," said O'Brien, a 28-year Deere employee. He said applicants have called from as far away as Texas and that one caller Monday even asked, "Are you really hiring?"

"We really are hiring," he said.

But for those whose credentials are not a match yet, Harrison said, "They have the opportunity to go out and get the skill set." Deere will be filling the jobs over the next several years as retirements occur.

Inexperienced workers can receive training through the various education partners. They include: Eastern Iowa Manufacturing Technology Center, Davenport; Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Southeastern Community College, Burlington, Iowa; Black Hawk College-East Campus, Kewanee, Ill.; and Carl Sandburg College, Galesburg, Ill.

Recruiting even is reaching the future work force with programs through the various area high schools, said Denny Schnoor, an assembler, trainer and recruiter at Davenport Works. He said plans are in place to begin holding monthly open houses for high school students and their parents to tour the plant and learn about manufacturing careers at Deere. Davenport Works has offered such a program as part of its recruitment efforts, but never on such a frequent basis.

"Several of our new employees are second- and third-generation," Harrison said. "A lot of them have seen the opportunities Deere has offered their parents, grandparents and they want to be part of that legacy."

Schnoor said state grants and scholarships also are paving the way for Deere to recruit -- and retrain -- the scores of displaced workers from Quad-City region companies such as Titan Wheel, Eagle Foods, Butler Manufacturing and Maytag, the latter two in Galesburg, Ill.

"It's unfortunate they are closing their doors," he said.

He and O'Brien walked into Titan the day after the closing was announced at the Walcott, Iowa, plant, and when they announced Deere was hiring, "You could see on the workers' faces that there was a light at the end of the tunnel."

Though the displaced workers may not have the exact skills, O'Brien said it is to the company's advantage to hire them because of their familiarity with the manufacturing environment, including the importance of safety in the workplace.

Deere also has stepped up its involvement in various career fairs. It will be among the participating employers at the Quad-City Times Career Fair from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Isle of Capri Convention Center in Bettendorf. Deere will be the sole employer at a Feb. 24 career fair with the Quad-Cities Community Leadership Council. That fair, which will run 1-6 p.m. that day at Centre Station in Moline, is aimed at the minority community.

"We're just casting a broad net to repopulate our work force and make sure our work force represents our community," Harrison said.

Jennifer DeWitt can be contacted at (563) 383-2318 or jdewitt@qctimes.com.

Object ID: 663671
Headline: JOBS MOVE, BUT DEERE AVOIDS CU
Byline: BUSINESS WATCH
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: January 25, 2004
Page: B10

Keywords: Local

Jobs move, but Deere avoids cuts

By Craig Cooper

To emphasize a point about the hot button political issue of manufacturing jobs moving out of the country, NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw cited a recent Deere & Co. move at least twice during Iowa Caucus television coverage.

Suggesting that the jobs were lost was somewhat misleading. No Deere employees actually lost paychecks, although the jobs they were doing will be moved.

Deere did announce it was moving 40 positions from its cotton harvesting, tillage and planting equipment facility in Ankeny, Iowa, to a facility in Monterrey, Mexico, that makes Deere component parts for Deere equipment. But no employees lost their jobs. Deere said the job moves will help efficiency.

The workers who were in the positions being moved to Mexico were transferred to other jobs within the Ankeny plant. Deere spokesman Ken Golden noted that the Ankeny plant has had employment growth of double the jobs that were lost in the last year.

The loss of manufacturing jobs out of the country is an important issue, as witnessed by Maytag's abandonment of Galesburg, Ill. But in this particular instance, no workers were hurt.

Deere featured

John Deere Harvester Works will be one of the features on the Travel Channel's "Made In America'' cable program Tuesday at 8 p.m. The replay date is Saturday (2 p.m.).

The series looks inside U.S. factories at some of America's best-known products.

Actor John Ratzenberger, who played barfly Cliff Clavin in "Cheers,” will host the show. Locations used for the Deere & Co. segment were the Harvester Works in East Moline, John Deere Pavilion and John Deere Collectors Center.

Sam's expanding

Sam's Club in Davenport has received plan and zone approval for an expansion of 27,000 square feet, which will put the 106,805-square-foot store more in line with the new Sam's Club stores being built.

Store general manager Evan Jones said the expansion on the north side of the present building will allow the addition of one-hour photo, pharmacy and optical departments.

Jones is hoping construction will be completed before the 2004 holiday shopping season.

Benefits battle

Craig Schnuck, chairman and CEO of Schnuck Markets Inc., said a recent strike against the company by employees represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers could be boiled down to virtually one issue.

Guess which one.

"In 18 months, our health care costs had doubled. We had to do something. Our employees weren't educated health care consumers. They would run off to the emergency room for aspirin,'' Schnuck said. "They weren't making co-pays, or paying premiums so we were paying almost all of the costs. I don't think the employees understood the actual costs.''

Schnuck mentioned the strike when asked if the first Schnucks Market in Iowa, to be built at Duck Creek Plaza, would have unionized employees.

In a highly competitive market, where the competition is union free, it doesn't appear likely that Schnucks will want the employees to be represented unless a union contract would still allow the grocer to be competitive.

Places, faces Jim Tansey, who had been with Butler Benefits in Davenport, has joined Ruhl & Ruhl Commercial Company. Tansey will partner with David Weiner and David Gellerman in commercial sales. Granite City Food and Brewery will open at 11 a.m. Tuesday near the Showcase Cinemas on Utica Ridge Road, Davenport. The restaurant-pub will be the sixth of the publicly traded company in the Midwest. The Bleu Peppercorn Sirloin sounds tasty. Qdoba Mexican Grill is expanding into Illinois and Iowa and is planning to open at least one restaurant in the Quad-Cities. Qdoba was acquired last year by Jack in the Box Inc.

Craig Cooper can be contacted at (563) 383-2360 or ccooper@qctimes.com.

Object ID: 533988
Headline: Arsenal lands Humvee contract Armor plating kits to reinforce tactical vehicles within Iraq
Byline: Ed Tibbetts QUAD-CITY TIMES
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: December 05, 2003
Page: A1

The urban warfare that's forced the military to alter its tactics in Iraq is continuing to have ripple effects at the Rock Island Arsenal.

Arsenal workers have just begun to produce 500 armor plating kits for tactical vehicles in Iraq to try to insulate them from attacks by rocket-propelled grenades and other threats being employed by the resistance there.

The project, which is being done in conjunction with an Alabama base, is the second prompted by the shift in the nature of the war in Iraq since Americans marched into Baghdad.

Arsenal workers have begun to work around the clock to produce the armored plating kits, which are being built for two- and four-door tactical vehicles. About 10 of the four-door kits are expected to be completed next week. The Anniston Army Depot in Alabama also is producing 500 of the plating kits, which are scheduled to be finished in March.

The kits will insulate the doors to Humvees.

U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday that wounded soldiers he recently visited told him they wanted to see armored plating installed on their vehicles. "These kids are being blown apart by these bombs in the street," he said.

The Humvee is just one of the many tactical vehicles on the ground in Iraq, and armoring them will be a big job. The Arsenal has the capacity to triple its production on the armored plates, and it very well could be asked to do so, said Al Wilson, deputy commander of the Rock Island Arsenal. He said a decision could be made in a couple of weeks.

The additional work could mean 70 jobs. Durbin said he understands there will be orders placed for 8,500 new armor plating kits.

There is only one steel mill in the country that produces the raw material for the armor plating kits, which Durbin linked to the Bush administration's decision Thursday to lift steel tariffs put in place more than a year and a half ago.

An Arsenal official could not say Thursday night whether it had been a problem getting raw materials for the project.

In the event the need for substantially more kits occurs, the work likely will be spread out to several other military bases besides the Arsenal, officials on the island said.

The armor plating contract is the latest example of the Iraqi conflict pushing additional work to the Arsenal.

Workers on the island are just completing work on 1,000 mounts for M6 machine guns they were ordered to produce earlier this year to arm vehicles in Iraq. Wilson said the last of the mounts are scheduled to be shipped out by the middle of December.

The first 700 were sent ahead of schedule, he said.

The armor plating job, while providing work for the Arsenal, is also an example that a year-old reorganization involving the Arsenal-based manufacturing center is paying dividends, officials on the island said Thursday.

The Michigan-based Army command that ordered the plate kits initially turned to the Anniston depot to do the job, but because of the need for a quick turnaround and the Arsenal's manufacturing capability, the work was divided. That happened at the request of the Ground Systems Industrial Enterprise, an umbrella agency that oversees both the Anniston depot and the Arsenal.

The agency was created to streamline work among military bases that perform similar functions. "It's a manufacturing mission, and we felt that it was a beautiful fit for the Arsenal," said Fred Smith, the deputy director of the industrial enterprise.

The work is clearly needed in the Quad-Cities.

The Arsenal placed an advertisement last month soliciting applicants to fill about 20 positions to inspect, repair and paint 300 trailers that had been used overseas. Wilson said the Arsenal got 400 applications, many of them from people who lost their jobs at Maytag in Galesburg, Ill., or from those who are about to lose their jobs at Titan Wheel International, in Walcott, Iowa.

Object ID: 531945
Headline: CORRECTIONS
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 22, 2003
Page: A2

The Quad-City Times strives for accuracy and regrets all errors. If you notice inaccurate information, please call (563) 383-2244 or (800) 437-4641 and ask for the section where the error occurred. All corrections will appear here.

Shaun Fleming, the owner of Big Catz House of Chrome II in Davenport, is not closing his Big Catz store at 3806 11th St., Rock Island, as incorrectly stated in an article published in Friday's business section. He is in the process of selling his Rock Island location to his business partner.

Hunters taking part in the annual deer hunt Dec. 6-8 at Scott County Park will be using shotguns. The type of weapon was stated incorrectly in an article published Friday.

Object ID: 527958
Headline: Morency continues M.A. Ford legacy Third generation leads Davenport family business
Byline: Mary Louise Speer QUAD-CITY TIMES
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: October 27, 2003
Page: A8

Steve Morency is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Frank, and father, Mal, as president of M.A. Ford Manufacturing Co.

The Davenport-based company makes high-precision carbide tools for industrial usage and Morency uses that same straightforward approach to compete in an increasingly competitive global market. M.A. Ford has sales offices and manufacturing facilities in the United States and a sales office/warehouse in England.

The company is the recipient of an export achievement certificate from the U.S Department of Commerce citing M.A. Ford's "recent accomplishments in the global marketplace."

"The business is a family business and my grandfather (Frank Morency) was the first member who worked here starting in the 1940s. Grandpa died before I was born. I think he was a very technical person. So am I," Steve Morency said.

He uses that technical expertise to keep the company focused and continuing to create a strong product line. The Davenport plant employs a work force of 200 with about 60 more at a site in Florida.

M.A. Ford's products include countersinks, carbide burs, carbide end mills, HSS end mills, carbide drills and high performance carbide drills, Morency said. Almost all of the products are made of tungsten carbide, a material many times harder than the high speed steel used for non-industrial drills.

The Davenport plant manufactures drills in sizes from quarter-inch to three-quarters of an inch and smaller pieces under a quarter-inch are produced in Florida, Morency said.

M.A. Ford was founded in 1919 by Matthew Ford, a tool and die worker at the Rock Island Arsenal. Ford used his skills to produce carbide burs.

Frank Morency piloted the company through turbulent times after the prosperity of the World War II years. "Like other businesses, our business was focused on World War II," Morency said.

Frank died in 1948 and his son, F. Mallen "Mal" Morency, took over as president. The 1950s proved a soft market time as the national scene moved from producing military equipment to a civilian-oriented market, Morency said.

Mal moved the company forward into a position as a leading edge producer of high-end, carbide industrial tools. His favorite saying was "You are one best suited to look out for your own best interests," Morency said.

Mal also was know for his straight-edged radio commentaries on issues from price controls, consumer advocates and profits.

Morency joined the company in 1976, five years after graduating from the University of Colorado. He headed the sales department before stepping into his father's role as president in the mid-1980s. Mal stayed involved in the business as chairman of the board until his death on Feb. 26.

Steve Morency wonders whether his son, a freshman in college, will keep M.A. Ford growing for a fourth generation. He remembers himself at the same age and the struggles to clarify what directions to take.

Morency believes small businesses are a valuable asset for the Quad-City community. "There are tremendous strengths in a small, locally owned business and it's important to us to stay that way," he said.

He has watched the negative impact of the decision by Maytag Corp. to end manufacturing operations in Galesburg, Ill. "We're here and we're not going anywhere. We employ 200 people and for every person who works here, there's a family at home," he said.

Object ID: 523641
Headline: Leonard Anderson
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: September 30, 2003
Page: C5

GALESBURG, Ill. -- Mr. G. "Leonard" Anderson, 82, of Marmac Drive, Galesburg, died 4:40 p.m. Friday, Sept. 26, 2003, at his home.

Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, at First Lutheran Church, with the Rev. Paul Johnson officiating. Visitation will be 5-8 p.m. today at Hinchliff-Pearson-West Galesburg Chapel. Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery. Memorials can be made to the First Lutheran church or Immanuel Lutheran Church of Altona.

Leonard worked as a foreman in the paint shop at Admiral/Maytag Corp. for 39 years, retiring March 28, 1986. As a boy he farmed in the Seaton, Alexis, North Henderson and Varna areas with his father. He graduated from Alexis High School in 1939.

He was a member of First Lutheran Church, Galesburg, where he was on the Social Ministry Committee, past Board Member and Sunday School teacher. He was a square-dancer with many clubs. He served Meals on Wheels.

He was born March 28, 1921, in Seaton, the son of Gustaf Frederick and Anna Christina (Lundeen) Anderson. He married Eleanor Fern Johnson on Sept. 25, 1949, in North Henderson. She survives.

Also surviving are two sons, the Rev. Tim L. (wife Jane) Anderson, of Altona, and Danny Ray Anderson, of Phoenix; one daughter, Cindy S. (husband Randy) Bender, of Milan; two sisters, Ruby Bickel, of Monmouth, and Betty (husband Gene) Corbin, of Alexis; and four grandchildren, Noel and Amy Anderson, of Altona, and Janson and Jenna Bender, of Milan. Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 519168
Headline: Activists, candidates decry weak national economy, bash Bush, GOP 3,500 attend Dem's Labor Day picnic in Hampton
Byline: Deirdre Cox Baker QUAD-CITY TIMES
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: September 02, 2003
Page: A5

About 3,500 Democratic party voters, activists and candidates gathered Monday at a picnic to decry the national economy and blame Republicans for mismanagement.

The event at scenic Illiniwek Park in Hampton, Ill. was sponsored by the Rock Island County Central Democratic Committee and featured a fried chicken dinner for those attending.

Two candidates for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, a Republican, scolded the Bush administration for mismanaging the nation's economy.

Barack Obama, a state senator from Chicago, said recent economic upswings are due more to businesses that cut costs to increase profitability. He made an example of the hundreds of jobs lost throughout the Quad-Cities and beyond from Eagle Foods'

closing and from the shuttering of the Maytag plant in Galesburg, Ill.

Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, also a senatorial candidate, said more than 700,000 more people have lost their jobs since he attended Rock Island County's Labor Day events last year. Hynes said the administration has its priorities skewed.

Republicans disagreed with the message at the picnic. "The president's jobs and growth package is turning the economy around," said Chad Colby, spokesman for the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C. "

One of his top priorities is that every American that wants a job finds a job."

Obama said if elected, he would support changes in health insurance coverage such as those espoused by Democratic presidential candidates Richard Gephardt and Howard Dean. "Basically, we have to expand eligibility and give employers incentives to provide more coverage," Obama said.

Obama and Hynes were making return visits to the picnic while a third senate candidate, Blair Hull, took part in the East Moline Labor Day parade held earlier Monday.

Object ID: 676529
Headline: 'Making It Happen' campaign showcases success
Byline: Craig Cooper QUAD-CITY BUSINESS JOURNAL
Source: Quad-City Business Journal
Publication Date: August 01, 2003
Page: 24

Sales associates with Mel Foster Co. thought the company should be more public about its accomplishments and its 48 percent market share in the Quad-Cities.

"They thought we should be telling people about the good job they were doing and about our success in the market," explains Pryce Boeye, president of Mel Foster's real estate brokerage division. "We probably hadn't done enough to promote the fact that we were No. 1 in this market. Our sales associates are proud of that fact.''

The response of company management this summer has been to introduce the "Making It Happen '' campaign throughout markets where Mel Foster has a presence. The intensive advertising and marketing campaign, kicked off at a companywide event in June, is difficult to ignore.

The campaign, put together by The Ad Group of Bettendorf, takes a blanket approach with billboards, radio, television and newspaper advertising, a jingle for radio and television advertising, and a change in company signage to promote the theme "Making It Happen.''

When a sale is made, the signage is changed to "Made It Happen.''

"We've been very happy with the response," Boeye says. "A lot of people have noticed and commented, and our salespeople feel good about the results.

"One of the reasons we launched the campaign the way we did was that we wanted the employees to see it first and to recognize their successes.''

Boeye says The Ad Group was the last of several agencies to make a presentation to Mel Foster management, including Boeye.

"Honestly, all of the other agencies had done a really good job, and we thought we had pretty much made a decision until The Ad Group came in. Someone was going to have to blow us away to not go with another agency we were looking at, but that is exactly what happened," he says. "I think what put it over the top for The Ad Group was the jingle.

"The jingle really hit us. It explained what we were all about.''

"Like a lot of successful people, they hadn't done a good job of promoting their own successes. It's not a boastful bunch of people," says Mike Vondran, a partner in The Ad Group. "That is what we wanted to do.

"It's a great relationship. You meet with those people, and you leave and you're walking a step faster and you're excited. Their excitement rubs off on you.''

Boeye is hoping the "Making It Happen '' campaign can help the company match a successful 2002. Before the start of the year, that didn't seem likely.

"We had such a good year in 2002 that we thought this probably would be a plateau year or maybe a little lower, but now I'm not sure about that," he says. "We're pretty much on track to where we were last year, which was a record year.

"Interest rates have kept it going. Young people who previously would have hoped to be able to afford an apartment are able to afford a house in this market. Before they wouldn't be able to afford a house because of higher interest rates.''

Boeye also is optimistic about the Galesburg market, which has an unemployment rate approaching 8 percent with the brunt of the Maytag plant closing still to come.

"What I've seen there is what I saw here in the 1980s when Caterpillar and IH were closing plants," he says.

"People are talking about what they can do. They are pulling together. It's like in sports ... adversity will pull a team closer together.

"There are going to be some struggles in that market, but if they keep their morale up, I think they'll recover there," he adds.

Mel Foster, which has a sales force in Galesburg, has put up three "Making It Happen '' billboards in the area so far.

Object ID: 511749
Headline: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: THE READERS' VIEWPOINT New law seeks to displace monopoly
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: July 17, 2003
Page: A15

SBC cares about the home state

Illinois workers and consumers are the big winners under a new state law -- currently being debated in the courts -- that gives SBC Illinois a fairer return for leasing its networks to competitors. SBC announced in May an estimated $91 million in DSL expansion throughout the state and the decision to save 500 employees slated for layoffs. SBC also made a commitment: no layoffs in Illinois for the next 12 months.

The new law will mean the windfall is over for the giant companies AT&T and MCI WorldCom. Why would anyone support public policy that favors companies who don't invest in the state and employ union workers like SBC does?

As the big companies tried to save their huge profits in the state, their mudslinging campaign against the bill obscured important facts:

SBC Illinois provides more than 21,000 jobs a year -- two-thirds of those are good paying union jobs. The competition can't claim that.

The law will not raise rates. The only reason the competitors would raise rates is if competitors want to save their 56 percent margin. They operate in plenty of states where the lease price they pay is higher than Illinois.

The governor and the General Assembly showed real leadership as they stood up to threats that the giant long-distance companies would raise rates if they couldn't keep their windfall profits. They voted for the home team.

Margaret Blackshere, AFL-CIO; Dennis Gannon,

Chicago Federation of Labor; Ron Kastner, IBEW Local 21; Teri Pluta,

Communications Workers of America

Our protection is first issue

Lately, there have been a couple of letters to the editor scrutinizing the purchase of AR-15s for our local law enforcement officers. I personally would like to commend the county for the wise purchase of the weapons. Perhaps people live in their own little sheltered world, but I for one can remember incidents like Columbine, the North Hollywood Shootout or even the news recently of three kids with a large cache of weapons.

Please tell me what is wrong with law enforcement having the firepower needed at their disposal to protect our streets? Criminals on the streets today are getting their hands on more sophisticated and powerful weapons than the old .357 revolver that was used by many for years and years; so why not have the ability to match firepower if ever needed?

We're talking about a semi-automatic rifle here, not a full automatic like the M-16 used by our troops. It's these types of weapons that were banned during the assault weapons ban. But guess what? You can still buy these weapons today if you have the licensing for it. I'm sorry if you believe that the average criminal has the right to have more firepower than those that are employed to protect us, but I do not agree with you. The licensing is there for the average citizen to purchase these types of weapons, but the ban was not intended for these average citizens, it was to keep assault weapons out of the hands of criminals.

Raymond Shawn Clark

Davenport

Too young for body art

If ladies and gentlemen under the age of 21 are not allowed to consume alcohol or gamble, why are they allowed to perform acts of body mutilating stupidity such as tattoos and body piercing? Not only could these acts be a health threat, they are absolutely stupid and ugly.

If attention seeking ladies and gentleman during a moment of stupidly want to mutilate their bodies, perhaps they should be allowed to run around bare naked to get attention. They would conduct their act of stupidly, receive attention and not suffer from permanent physical scars if they by chance one day wake up and ask themselves, "Why did I do this?"

Mary Pikes

Davenport

Improvements hopefully in future

Someone said recently if it can be proven Mr. Bush exaggerated the threat of weapons of mass destruction Iraq had (being his logic for going there), it could be an impeachable offense. Could the war recently in Iraq be a liability rather than his insurance/assurance for a second term? When the senior Bush was president, it seems the economy was in the toilet and we were at war, too. I think Bush No. 2 is more clueless than No. 1 on how to solve the country's ills.

Can anyone remember the Clinton years where business was booming and people had jobs and Maytag was still in the United States? William Jefferson Clinton was smart.

Didn't I read that if elected, Dick Gephardt will see that all Americans have health care (National Health System) as Europe and Canada already have? We may have to wait till 2008 for when Hillary is candidate. I'm marking the days off the calendar.

Don Harlan

Galesburg, Ill.

GUIDELINES

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Please limit your letters to 250 words or fewer. We limit each writer to one published letter every 30 days.

All letters are subject to editing. Because of volume, some letters may not be used.

Be sure to sign your letter. Include your address and phone number (for verification only).

E-mail: opinions@qctimes.com

Mail: Letters to the Editor, Q-C Times, P.O. Box 3828, Davenport, IA 52808

Object ID: 502111
Headline: Reagan Trail extension advances in Illinois
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 15, 2003
Page: A6

SPRINGFIELD. (AP) -- After stalling last year, a proposal to add Galesburg and Monmouth to a 15-city historical trail that traces Ronald Reagan's roots in Illinois is picking up speed.

A House-approved bill to extend the trail has advanced to the Senate Executive Committee, which could consider it next week. A similar bill also made it through the House last spring but died without a Senate vote.

"I'm highly encouraged. I think that says the Senate is going to give it serious consideration," said the bill's House sponsor, Rep. Don Moffitt, R-Gilson.

Without the two western Illinois cities, the trail covers only part of the former president's legacy in Illinois, Moffitt said.

"It's incomplete to say, 'Here's the Reagan Trail,' then not include towns where he spent part of his childhood and started first grade," Moffitt said.

Reagan was 4 years old when his family moved to Galesburg in 1915, and he began his formal education there. In 1917, the Reagans moved to nearby Monmouth before returning to the actor-turned-president's hometown of Tampico in 1919.

The family's homes in both cities are still standing, along with the Galesburg grade school, which has a display devoted to the ex-president.

Galesburg also has a link to Nancy Reagan, who spent summers there with her adopted grandparents about a decade after her future husband moved.

Moffitt thinks those ties to the only president born in Illinois could be an economic boost for an area that will lose its largest employer next year when Maytag shutters a 1,600-employee refrigerator plant.

"It helps bring in money. It's one more reason to stop in Galesburg, and it's one more reason to shop in Galesburg," he said.

Along with extending Illinois' tribute to the Republican ex-president, the bill also would rename Illinois 50 in Bradley for the late Kenneth Hayes, a former Democratic mayor.

Moffitt hopes that bipartisan approach will help push the bill through the Senate.

Object ID: 500989
Headline: THE ISSUE: Dividend cuts Grassley's best efforts shouldn't save tax cut
Byline: OUR EDITORIAL
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 08, 2003
Page: A11

Sen. Charles Grassley, in some ways, embodies the best of politics: an ability and a bent to collaborate, a drive to build consensus and a can-do outlook that often turns gridlock into progress.

To use a plain-spoken clich'e9 the Iowa senator might himself use: he can turn a sow's ear into a silk purse.

Unfortunately, the tax cut Grassley is working with comes from the other end of the hog.

His bill, full of compromises and self-described "gimmicks," can't take the stink off the biggest part of the plan: the dividend tax cut.

Political reasons make it an impossible idea. Economics makes it a bad idea.

Dividend tax cuts will not stimulate the U.S. economy in any concerted or helpful way.

It may encourage more stock market investment, but offers no inkling that will translate into capital investment by corporations.

Even with pocket-fulls of cash, manufacturers still are choosing to invest elsewhere.

Just watch Iowa's own Maytag make its Galesburg, Ill. plant disappear, despite millions in local incentives.

A dividend tax cut will not increase demand for U.S. goods and services.

As head of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley has put together a bill that smartly increases the child tax credit and reduces the marriage penalty. Both put tax money back in the pockets of low- and middle-wage earners.

He has modified Bush's request to immediately eliminate the dividend tax. Today, Grassley's Finance Committee will vote on a three-year phase out of the dividend tax, that will require another Congressional vote in year No. 4 to keep it from coming back.

Democrats won't buy it because it's too much. Most Republicans won't buy it because it's not enough.

In the middle stands our earnest Republican Senator, plunging forward like a good soldier for President Bush.

Unlike the last war, Grassley and the President face much stiffer resistance.

* * *

Still uncertain about the uselessness of a dividend tax cut?

Take it from Warren Buffett. The spectacularly successful investor issued this warning against the Bush plan four days ago:

"I think you can argue that if you move money into the hands of people who are going to spend it today, from people who are going to save it, you are going to have a stimulative effect on the economy.

"The way to do that, of course, is to not give any money to me because I'm going to invest it no matter what. I'm not going to buy a new car. Give it to a whole bunch of people who are going to spend it tomorrow. Then you will stimulate the economy." Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 676162
Headline: BRIEFLY
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: April 01, 2003
Page: 10

HON garners award

The HON Co.'s Cedartown, Ga., facility has been awarded the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing. The award recognizes companies, divisions and plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico that demonstrate excellence in manufacturing leading to superior customer service and business performance.

The Shingo Prize was established in 1988 and honors Shigeo Shingo, one of the world's leading experts on improving manufacturing processes.

Brazeway plant to close

Brazeway Inc., a manufacturer of refrigeration components in the Crossroads Business Park, DeWitt, has announced plans to close its plant in the first quarter of 2004.

A company spokesman said the decision came after the announcement to close the Maytag plant in Galesburg, Ill. The Galesburg plant was one of Brazeway's major customers.

Headquartered in Adrian, Mich., the company also has facilities in Hopkinsville, Ky.; Monterey, Mexico; Shelbyville, Ind.; and has licenses in Europe, Asia and South America.

Manufacturing jobs decline

In a recent report issued by the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, or IIRA, at Western Illinois University, researchers found that manufacturing jobs in rural parts of the state declined more rapidly than in neighboring states during the 1990s.

The report indicates that statewide, manufacturing declined 11.7 percent, compared with an increase of 1 percent in Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin. Rural Illinois counties lost 2.3 percent of their manufacturing jobs, compared with a gain of 10.9 percent in the surrounding states during the 1990s.

Copies of the report, Keeping Rural Illinois Vibrant: State Policies for the 21st Century, are available from IIRA at www.iira.org or by calling (800) 526-9943.

Sterling reopens plant

Sterling Steel Co., whose plant closed in May 2001, has reopened its facility with 215 new jobs for Sterling, Ill.

Most of the jobs were given to employees who worked for the company before it closed in 2001. The plant is expected to produce about 400,000 tons of steel rod per year.

Tyson pledges $110K

Employees at Tyson Foods' IBP beef plant in Joslin, Ill., have pledged more than $110,000 to the United Way of the Quad-Cities.

The effort was a combination of corporate support, team-member incentives, agency tours and internal publicity.

PIPECO moves in Bettendorf

PIPECO Inc. moved to a new location at 610 29th St. in Bettendorf in early February. For more information, call (563) 344-0700 or visit www.pipecoinc.com.

Equistar reaches safety goal

Clinton-based Equistar Chemicals employees reached their goal of working more than 2 million hours -- or 911 days -- without any recorded injuries.

Plant manager John Parkinson credited a strong safety culture among plant employees. Equistar manufactures polyethylene resins used to make leakproof and shatterproof containers, protective food packaging and children's toys.

NECA elects new board

The Quad-Cities chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association, or NECA, has elected its new board of directors and officers: Daniel Palmer, Tri-City Electric Co.; Joe Bosso, Bosso Electric; Steve Heysinger, Electric Service of Clinton; Dennis Fuessel, Davenport Electric Contract Co.; and Denny Meyer, Farlow Electric.

Deere tours rank high

Three Deere & Co. facilities -- the John Deere Pavilion, Harvester Works and Waterloo Works -- have been featured as some of the best tours in the country in "Watch It Made in the U.S.A," which also featured more than 300 other companies that invite guests to visit and discover their how products are made.

The special provided narratives of the behind-the-scenes processes that are seen, as well as practical information including tour hours and admission, age and group requirements, disabled access and retail stores.

Alfagomma hits Burlington

Alfagomma America Inc.'s new North American headquarters will operate from Burlington, Iowa's Flint Ridge Business Park.

Object ID: 483287
Headline: Smoking ban: ordinance or federal law?
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: January 23, 2003
Page: A11

Alienation of non-smokers

In this day and age when most everyone is health conscious, there should be a city ordinance stating all restaurants are to be smoke-free.

Even if sections are separated, the smoke infiltrates/pollutes the entire restaurant. Maybe it should be a federal law.

I feel violated by smokers who prescribe to philosophies in Karen Castro's letter on Jan. 10, 2003.

Perhaps if she experienced upper respiratory allergies, diabetes, heart problems..., she would be more understanding.

I feel grieved toward owners and managers of these businesses who put smokers' needs before mine because they may lose them as customers.

Mary G. Kurylo

Davenport

Murder case leaves community divided

This is in response to Kay Luna's article on her viewpoint in the Jan. 15 Quad-City Times. First of all, I cannot see how Kay can find sympathy with the Huffmans, whose grandson beat Melinda Wilkinson to death with a baseball bat in February of 1995 and then dumped her body in the Mississippi River.

The Huffmans are very unsympathetic to the Wilkinsons... .

The Huffman's representation of David in the clemency hearing in Springfield was one of their last ditch efforts to help him. In one and a half days prior to the hearing, we, the friends of the Wilkinsons, collected more than 1,100 signatures petitioning to deny clemency... . I guess I cannot understand why the Huffmans think they are being bullied and blamed for David's actions. Rather it is for the support they are giving him.

Patrick Housenga

Thomson, Ill.

Project needs realistic approach

During the last month I have been visiting with homeowners and businesses along the Camanche Avenue corridor in Clinton. Many folks think this project is going to start this spring. The earliest this project could start is 2005 and that will only be the east end from Smith Brothers to Country Kitchen. The rest of the corridor will be years away.

The project is more than $50 million. At present, the city doesn't have the funds, the state of Iowa doesn't have the funds, and the only avenue we have left is the federal government. Yes, we can go back to Washington every year in between the major transportation bill, but the additional dollars that we might receive will be a very small amount compared to what is needed to complete this $50 million project.

I, as a citizen and property owner along Camanche Avenue, agree this entrance to our city needs to be done, and we must go to Washington to get as much money as possible. But to think that this road is going to be completed in the next six years is very unrealistic.

I also think the engineering firm of Howard R. Greene needs to do a better job of communication with the homeowners and the businesses along Camanche Avenue.

First, a public meeting with everyone present for a question-and-answer period would be very helpful. Second, a citizen's advisory group made up of homeowners and business owners involved in the corridor should be created.

David A. Rose

Clinton, Iowa

More channels don't help

As sure as we will have to pay taxes, the cable industry will increase their rates every Spring. Each year we get the same story that increased costs and new technology have forced them to raise our monthly rates. This may be true, however they are willing to throw in a few extra channels to offset the rising rates. How about reducing the number of channels to offset the new costs?

The new channels they offer are usually worthless, probably not watched by very many. Some of the channels are strictly infomercials. Late night viewing is mostly infomercials.

Of the 70-plus channels offered, I watch a select few. On top of all this we are constantly bombarded with commercials on all channels. Several years ago I dropped HBO in hopes of offsetting the rising costs. Now I am back to where I started.

Maybe if the customers started to cancel cable services something could be accomplished about the rising rates.

John E. Andersen

Davenport

Clonaid reflects poorly on science

Quad-City Times health reporter Cherie Black's assumption that cloned humans would result in a lack of new ideas is a common, but inaccurate one. For that to be true, human personality, intelligence, and talents would have to be determined 100 percent by genes. Does Ms. Black really believe that she would be just as intelligent as she is without her years of education? Does she believe that had she grown up in a different century or in a different family that she would be exactly as she is today? That all of her ideas would be precisely what they are today? Just about every human trait has a significant environmental contribution.

Genes provide a starting point, but that point is flexible, and can be pushed in various directions by one's experiences. ...

Cloning does present some dilemmas, many of which I did not mention. But let's be informed about what the real issues are. And perhaps it's time to ignore the claims of Clonaid and pay attention to what's happening in the real scientific world, where evidence that is scrutinized by real scientists exists.

Kathleen M. Trujillo

Davenport

Cloning column was 'delightful'

I am a 45-year-old woman who has just read Cherie Black's article entitled, "How long would you, could you stay you?"

I found it to be a delightful and humorous approach to this cloning stuff. I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your comments on this sensitive issue and I really loved your closing statement, too. Is life here on Earth that wonderful that we never want the chance to try something better?

I enjoyed reading your article and it made me chuckle a bit. One cannot read too much humor as far as I am concerned. Life just gets too serious and difficult!

Mary Handley

Moline

Bush plan: here we go again

President Bush is submitting another stimulus plan addressing lack of supply when our problem is lack of demand. He said this package was aimed at creating U.S. jobs, yet Wednesday his administration started formal negotiations to expand NAFTA into Central America. Let's examine some facts about NAFTA:

NAFTA has turned a $1.7 billion trade surplus with Mexico into a $25 billion deficit.

Turned a surplus with Canada into a $4.5 billion deficit.

Eliminated l million well-paying US jobs which is destroying the US manufacturing base.

... As unemployment rises, more and more Americans are searching for non-existent jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we have lost almost 2 million jobs in the last two years, and at 16.5 million, we now have the lowest number of factory jobs in the last 40 years.

... The truth is American workers cannot compete against workers in developing countries who are forced to work for pennies an hour, have no health care benefits, no retirement benefits, etc.

Money to train unemployed people for non-existent jobs is a waste, as is rebating money to employers who will take it to Mexico, China, etc.

Motorola was building 1,000 color TVs per day in Quincy, Ill. They took their rebate to build a plant in China. Maytag is closing their plant in Galesburg and moving it to Mexico.

...If the American economy is going to survive and if our workers are to earn a living wage, we need fundamental changes in our trade policies.

E.C. McDonald

Davenport

Prison life offers no deterrence

The front page "survey" item of the Jan. 9 edition explains how lighter sentences will ease the prison shortfalls. What the item failed to mention is that our criminals and their lawyers have enriched the quality of life for prisoners so much that incarceration is no longer an affordable option to deter crime.

The $30,000 per year cost to house a prisoner is an often mentioned figure, and that only allows affordable retention for about half the sentence.

Bad behavior does not increase the term, but normal behavior can reduce the term to less than half. How can life in prison with healthy meals a day, a clean warm bed, and all the other prisoner rights, be a deterrent to criminal acts by a person who has been living on one meal a day in an abandoned car?

Punishment for violating the law can be levied in more ways than incarceration. White collar criminals should not be housed in luxury half-way houses by the taxpayer, but they should be forced to make full restitution to their victims. ...

Our current response to crime is about making excuses for or not violating the rights of the perpetrator. We should be embarrassed by our record of repeat offenders. ...Our present criminal justice system is not working and not effective and we need to put full restitution to the victim from the perpetrator as our No. 1 priority. If we do, all the associated problems will self resolve. Corruption is our greatest obstacle.

Robert A. Kuehl

Object ID: 483232
Headline: BUSINESS BRIEFLY
Byline: TIMES WIRE SERVICES
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: January 23, 2003
Page: A8

Kmart Corp.

CEO could earn $1M plus bonus

Julian C. Day, the new chief executive at Kmart Corp., will receive a base salary of $1 million and a bonus of another $1 million when the retailer emerges from bankruptcy.

A filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission also shows that Day, who was serving as Kmart's president before being promoted to CEO on Sunday, is eligible for other bonuses if the company performs well.

Day, 50, already was in line for an emergence bonus as president, but the amount hadn't been determined.

Kmart, which has said it hopes to exit Chapter 11 by April 30, is expected to file its reorganization plan with the bankruptcy court in Chicago by Friday.

Day succeeds chairman James B. Adamson, who will remain with the Troy-based retail chain through the final stages of its reorganization. Adamson's role has been narrowed to that of non-executive chairman.

Day's base salary is $1 million and his contract runs through Jan. 31, 2006, according to the SEC filing. His contract allows him to use the company's plane and receive four times his base salary if Kmart achieves certain financial goals.

Steel industry

Agreement clears way for mill reopening

Federal and state officials have reached a settlement with bankrupt Laclede Steel Co. that clears the way for its mill to reopen and the site cleaned of hazardous waste.

Under the settlement announced Wednesday, Laclede will sell the 90-year-old mill for $1 million to Alton Steel, a company formed by local investors who plan to reopen the mill, which is near St. Louis.

Raymond Stillwell, Alton Steel's general counsel and one of its investors, said the mill will begin production in April with as many as 150 employees.

The $1 million will be placed in a trust to be used by Alton Steel to clean the site under regulators' supervision. Stillwell said cleaning the 400-acre site could take several years and cost as much as $30 million.

Maytag Corp.

Galesburg closing affects bottom line

Maytag Corp. reported fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday of $3.3 million, including a one-time restructuring charge of $67.1 million from the closing of its refrigerator factory in western Illinois.

Fourth-quarter earnings were 4 cents per share, compared to a loss of $20.7 million, or 27 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding the restructuring charge, Maytag earned $48.3 million, or 62 cents per share, up 29 percent from a year ago. On that basis, the 62 cent profit was in line with Wall Street expectations, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson First Call. Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 645461
Headline: Nichols workers accept contract
Byline: Thomas Geyer QUAD-CITY TIMES
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 20, 2002
Page: A5

By a margin of more than 2 to 1, union employees of Nichols Aluminum, Davenport, ratified Tuesday a new five-year contract, a union official said.

Bill McCabe, president of the Teamsters and Chauffeurs Local 371, said 185 workers from both Davenport plants -- 2101 J M Morris Blvd. and 1725 Rockingham Road -- voted 125 to 60 for the new contract that includes wage increases over the life of the contract.

"If you don't have people earning a good wage, how are you going to drive the economy," he said. "Somebody's got to buy."

Union members also were able to maintain their benefits, although health insurance is going to cost the employees a bit more, he said. "The cost of health insurance is killing companies and union members," he said.

It was the second contract vote, the first was defeated Thursday by a vote of 150-32.

Not everyone was happy with Tuesday's vote. One employee, who would only give his first name, Jeff, said the raise is $1.49 over the next five years and insurance costs are being increased 11 percent. "By the time all is said and done, with insurance costs going up, we may see only 75 cents of that raise," he said.

Likely, it was fear generated in the wake of Maytag's decision to close its Galesburg, Ill., plant and move some of those jobs to Mexico that turned this vote around, he added.

He noted only 185 out of 266 employees represented by Local 371 voted. "Some figured it was a waste of time," he said.

But McCabe said the relationship between the union and Nichols Aluminum is solid.

"And the company appreciates what the workers are doing," he said, adding the employees helped to improve production by about 40 percent over last year.

Nichols manufactures coated- and mill-finish aluminum sheet for a wide variety of uses, including awnings and canopies, doors and windows, beverage cans, ladders, consumer electronic parts, appliances, cookware, semi trailers, motor homes and passenger cars.

Object ID: 642230
Headline: Evans faces another opponent in restructured district
Byline: Ed Tibbetts QUAD-CITY TIMES
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: November 01, 2002
Page: A6

Over a seven-month period two years ago, a couple of things happened that made life much easier for U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill.

The Rock Island congressman won his third and final battle with Republican challenger Mark Baker in November 2000. Then, in the closing days of May 2001, the Illinois Legislature approved new congressional districts, giving Evans new territory that many political observers believe virtually assured his re-election in 2002.

Apparently, nobody told Pete Calderone. The 52-year-old Galesburg man has been motoring through the sprawling 17th district for a year now, trying to convince people what other, better-funded Republicans, have failed to do over the past 20 years -- that Evans is out of step with the more conservative leanings of the district.

Calderone, a manufacturer's representative in the sporting goods business, is accustomed to being underestimated. Many observers thought he would not even win the GOP primary against Tony Rees, an Aledo accountant, in March. Still, he did and now he is doggedly trying to make his case against Evans. Among Calderone's themes is the struggling western Illinois economy and Evans' inability to help make it better.

"He promises everything, but does nothing," Calderone says. He blames Evans for failing to stanch job losses at the Rock Island Arsenal and for failing to help the shuttered Northwestern Steel & Wire in Sterling. The two also have crossed swords on the recent closing of the Maytag plant in Galesburg.

The economy is a theme familiar to campaigns in the 17th Congressional District in Illinois. Nonetheless, Calderone is hoping his regular-guy approach will drive them home.

It is, to be sure, an uphill climb. Evans has raised $703,000 this campaign cycle, while Calderone has raised only $31,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog.

Also, for the first time since 1994, Evans' path to re-election is not being obstructed by national Republicans. Since 1996, when Mark Baker, a former Quincy, Ill., television anchorman, came on the scene, Republicans have seen the district as ripe territory. And, as a result, they have poured millions of dollars into trying to knock off Evans, who first was elected in 1982.

This go around, the national party has been noticeably absent.

While Evans does not have the challenge of a well-funded opposition, he still has a broad new district that stretches from Springfield to just north of St. Louis and then all the way up to the Quad-Cities. It is a lot of new territory where, in some cases, Evans is seen as an unknown quantity, not a 20-year unbeatable incumbent.

Evans says he has toured the district and has had success in connecting with people. "We've worked very hard to establish ourselves in the rural area," he says, and promises, "I will take the same level of advocacy to their needs as I do in the Quad-Cities."

He also rejects the notion that he has been ineffective in helping the local economy, noting the federal government has injected millions more dollars into the Arsenal through the work of the congressional delegation.

The two differ on the $1.6 trillion tax cut Congress passed last year. Evans voted against it. Calderone favors it and would make the cuts permanent. Evans also has voted pro-choice on abortion, while Calderone is anti-abortion.

The campaign has been low-key, at least in part because Evans has refused to debate Calderone.

Calderone says Evans is afraid of him.

"He doesn't know how to handle me," Calderone says. "I'm a working-class guy. Mark Baker was seen as a slick-anchor guy. Nobody's ever accused me of being slick."

Evans, though, says he does not see the value in debating in a day when he believes such encounters are reduced to "sound bites."

"What kind of debate is this? Is he going to go in calling me a liar and a Socialist? I don't have time for this," Evans says.

Calderone has accused Evans of belonging to an organization that has Socialist leanings, something Evans and the group has denied. "These aren't debates any more," Evans adds, calling them a litany of "one-liners."

Evans says Calderone's criticism of him on the Arsenal issue shows he does not understand how important it is to work in a bi-partisan manner in Congress. "I don't think he has a grasp on what this job is all about," Evans says.

With a new district, Evans also is finding that he is having to deal with questions about his battle with Parkinson's disease, which he first disclosed in 1998 before his second race against Baker.

Since then, the issue has not had a detrimental impact on his political races. He won with 55 percent of the vote in 2000. However, in the new district people are curious. Evans says he has confronted the questions. "I don't mind talking about it," he said.

Object ID: 614182
Headline: CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 12, 2002
Page: M5

Visit our web site: www.QCTPlus60.com. The Quad-City Times Plus 60 Clubhas year-round activities for its members.

To book tours:Plus 60 trips should be reserved directly with the tour agency. (Motorcoach tours: Tri-State/Plus 60 hotline, 359-5917. For foreign travel and major cruises: AAA Travel Agency, 332-7400, ext. 851.)

Here's a rundown of our tours and special events. Sold out tours with long waitlists have been omitted from this list.

May

May 14, 2002: Salute to Seniors at the Expo Building, Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Information and prizes. Free. (See story next page)

May 15, 2002: Plus 60 members and other seniors are invited to free dress rehearsal of "Wizard of Oz" at Pleasant Valley High School. Refreshments will be served. (See story next page)

May 29, 2002: "Sound of Music" at Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse: $26.69 for matinee, lunch and chance at prizes (make reservations with Circa box office)

May 31, 2002:Milwaukee Art Museum with lunch at Taste of Home, headquarters of Reiman Publications in Greendale, Wis.: $75.

June

June 1, 2002: "Hollywood Arms," based on Carol Burnett's best-selling memoir "One More Time," at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago: $89.

June 5, 2002: "Damn Yankees" at Marriott Lincolnshire Theater with lunch: $75.

June 6, 2002:"Steel Magnolias" at Fireside Dinner-Theatre: $77 with lunch.

June 11, 2002: "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at Timberlake Playhouse, Mt. Carroll, Ill., with dinner at Oakville Country Club: $57.

June 16, 2002: "The Odd Couple" at Barn II Theater in Goodfield, Ill., with Sunday brunch at the theater: $52.

June 21, 2002: Jim Nabors at Drury Lane Theater, Evergreen Park, with lunch: $85 (near sellout).

June 21, 2002: Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals in Wrigley Field: $50 (wait list).

June 25, 2002: "Maiming of the Shrew," murder mystery dinner theater in Newton, Iowa, with Maytag exhibit en route: $60.

June 25-30, 2002:Westward Adventure, with grandchildren welcome: $679 (Less for children under 16 and those sharing triple and Quad accommodations; Tri-State; three seats left).

June 27 and Sept. 11: Spirit of Chicago luncheon cruise and Navy Pier: $77.

June 30, 2002: Plus 60 afternoon at John O'Donnell Stadium. Game at 2 p.m.

June 30-July 1, 2002: Twilight cruise. Book with Plus 60 board member Frank McClurg, 3426 St. James Ave., Bettendorf 52722: $245 per person, double occupancy. Deposit is $50.

July

July 9, 2002: Lake Geneva luncheon cruise with free time for browsing in Lake Geneva: $73.

July 12, 2002: Plus 60 picnic at Rock Island Arsenal: $7 (tickets available at regular outlets and by mail in June).

July 13, 2002: Showboat Theater production of "Mame" in Clinton, with tour of Arboretum and a hot lunch and tour at Curtis Mansion: $45.

July 14, 2002: Milwaukee Circus Parade with lunch voucher and reserved bleacher seating: $75 ($70 for grandchildren 12 and under)

July 18, 2002:Chicago for Chihuly glass show at Garfield Park, lunch at the Chicago Historical Society and the new American Presidency Exhibit and "Fashion, Flappers and all that Jazz": $65.

July 24, 2002:Chicago Cubs vs. Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field: $40.

July 26 and Sept. 25, 2002: "The Sound of Music" at Fireside Dinner-Theater: $77 with lunch.

July 31, 2002: "Getting Mamma Married," matinee at Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse: $26.69 with lunch (make reservations with Circa box office).

August

Aug. 1, 2002: Senior Day at the Mississippi Valley Fair.

Aug. 10, 2002: "Kiss Me Kate" at Clinton Showboat Theater with tour of Arboretum and hot lunch and tour at Curtis Mansion: $45.

Aug. 12-26, 2002:Salute to America; World War II in Europe: $4, 335 (AAA).

Aug. 14, 2002:Chicago Cubs vs. Houston Astros: $40.

Aug. 14, 2002: Senior day at Iowa State Fair: $35.

Aug. 22, 2002: "Aida" at the Cadillac Palace Theater, Chicago: $101.

Aug. 22-24, 2002: The Longaberger Headquarters and Homestead in Ohio: $325 (Tri-State).

Aug. 26-30, 2002: Plus 60 Golf Outing at Hidden Hills, Bettendorf (first signup coupon in Times July 21).

September

Sept. 4, 2002: "A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline" at Circa '21 Dinner-Playhouse: $32.03. (make reservations at Circa box office).

Sept. 11-15, 2002: 28th anniversary trip to Branson, staying four nights at Chateau on the Lake: $1,085, including Shoji Tabuchi Show, the Bobby Vinton Show with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Doug Gabriel Show, Stars of Lawrence Welk, Andy Williams and a sunset cruise, plus high tea at the hotel and walking tour with a master gardener. Lots of extras and prizes. (Tri-State; nearing sellout).

Sept. 18, 2002: Glenn Miller Orchestra in 7 p.m. concert at Orpheum Theater, Galesburg, with sandwiches, soup and dessert at Jumer's in Galesburg before the show: $57 (Tri-State).

Sept 28-Oct. 5, 2002: New England-Canada cruise aboard Golden Princess: From $1,598 (AAA)

Sept. 29-30, 2002: Twilight cruise (book with Plus 60 board member later in the year)

October

Oct. 2, 2002: Fall foliage tour to Cashton, Wis., with Amish tour guide and lunch at Westby House: $61.

Oct. 4, 2002: Lyle Beaver plays for Plus 60 Oktoberfest dance at the Col Ballroom.

Oct. 9-20, 2002: Rhine River cruise and Interlaken, Switzerland: From $3,469 (AAA; wait list)

Oct. 10, 2002:Celebration Belle lunch cruise: $62.

Oct. 13, 2002: Reception for artists at Davenport Museum of Art.

Oct. 16, 2002:"Stars of Lawrence Welk" at Drury Lane, Evergreen Park: $85 with lunch.

Oct. 23, 2002 and Nov. 6, 2002:"A Fireside Christmas" at Fireside Dinner-Theatre, Fort Atkinson, Wis: $77 with lunch.

Oct. 23, 2002: "Sing Hallelujah" at Circa '21 Dinner-Playhouse: $26.69 (make reservations at Circa box office).

Oct. 26, 2002: ''Swing Out, the Big Band Show" with Hunter Fuerste and his vintage orchestra at Dubuque Opera House, with lunch at the historic Ryan House: $58.

Oct. 27, 2002: Reception for photographers at Davenport Museum of Art.

Oct. 28-Nov. 1, 2002: Las Vegas, flying out of Cedar Rapids and staying at Excalibur Hotel: $595 (Tri-State).

Oct. 30, 2002: "Carousel" at Marriott Lincolnshire Theater, with lunch: $75.

November

Nov. 3-13, 2002: Italy, including Rome, Siena, Florence, Vernona, Venice, Assisi, Sorrento, Pompei: $1,894 (AAA).

Nov. 11, 2002: Ozark Jubilee Christmas Show at Orpheum Theater, Galesburg: $58, with lunch at the Kensington Club.

Nov. 26 and Dec. 4, 2002:Christmas with the Rockettes in Rosemont, Ill: $111 with lunch at the Holiday Inn.

Nov. 29-Dec. 2, 2002: Branson Christmas: $595, including Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, Yakov Smirnoff show, Silver Dollar City, Country Tonight, Shoji Tabuchi, sightseeing and some meals. (Tri-State).

December

Dec. 2, 2002: East Peoria Festival of Lights and Christmasshowat Countryside Banquet Hall: $71.

Dec. 6, 2002: Ken Paulsen Orchestra plays at the Col Ballroom.

Dec. 8, 2002: "No Sex Please, We're British" at Barn II Theater in Goodfield, Ill., with Sunday brunch: $52.

Dec. 9-12, 2002:Christmas at the Opryland Hotel, Nashville: $709, including Fantasy in Ice, the Radio City Rockettes, General Jackson Showboat, Treasures for the Holidays (art, hand-crafted gifts and antiques), Christmas dinner "under the stars," Opry Mills VIP package and more. (Tri-State).

Dec. 12, 2002: Christmas in the Amanas: $63, with lunch at the Brick Haus and "1940s Radio Show" at Old Creamery Theatre.

January

Jan. 17-25, 2003: Carnival Pride cruise out of Cape Canavaral to Belieze and other ports: From $1,483, with overnight in Orlando, Fla.

Feb. 14, 2003: Don Riggs Big Band at Col Ballroom, Davenport.

March 14-17, 2003: New Orleans and the St. Patrick's Day Parade (Tri-State)

April 7-15, 2003: Washington, D.C., Shenandoah and the Smokies. (Tri-State)

Aug. 1-5, 2003:Pops by the Sea (Cape Cod and Boston Pops). (Tri-State)

Nov. 28-Dec. 1, 2003:Christmas in Branson. (Tri-State)

Dec. 3-7, 2003: Dollywood and Pigeon Forge. (Tri-State)

More for 2003 with AAA: Panama Canal in February, a weekinLondon in Late March, Yangtze River cruise inlate April or May, Baltic Sea cruise between Scandinavia and Russia in June, Alaska Inside Passage on Carnival Spirit in July or August, Danube cruise (including Budapest and Prague) in September, California wine country cruise in October and Australia and New Zealand in November (call AAA to get your name on the mailing list for a brochure when they become become available).

More for 2003 with Tri-State Tours: Toronto in May; St. Louis Grandchildren's trip in July; The Tall Stacks in Cincinnati in October; Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos (with optional hot air balloon ride) in October..

Plus 60 questions: Call Shirley Davis, 383-2281 (leave a message on voice mail), Please call the tour companies mentioned above for information about Plus 60 tours. Copyright 2002 by Quad-City Times , All rights Reserved.

Object ID: 612933
Headline: CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Byline:
Source: Quad-City Times
Publication Date: May 05, 2002
Page: M5

Visit our web site: www.QCTPlus60.com.

The Quad-City Times Plus 60 Clubhas year-round activities for its members.

Here's a rundown of our tours and special events. Sold out tours with long waitlists have been omitted from this list.

May

May 8, 2002: Lunch at the Davenport Museum of Art with a western theme to tie to "Old West, New West" exhibit. Make reservations with the art museum, 888-2046: $12.

May 10, 2002: Johnny Kaye Orchestra plays the Col Ballroom: $6 in advance, $7 at the door. Make table reservations witn the Col.

May 14, 2002: Salute to Seniors at the Expo Building, Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Information and prizes. Free.

May 15, 2002: Plus 60 members and other seniors are invited to free dress rehearsal of "Wizard of Oz" at Pleasant Valley High School.

May 29, 2002: "Sound of Music" at Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse: $26.69 for matinee, lunch and chance at prizes (make reservations with Circa box office)

May 31, 2002:Milwaukee Art Museum with lunch at Taste of Home, headquarters of Reiman Publications in Greendale, Wis.: $75.

June

June 1, 2002: "Hollywood Arms," based on Carol Burnett's best-selling memoir "One More Time," at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago: $89.

June 5, 2002: "Damn Yankees" at Marriott Lincolnshire Theater with lunch: $75.

June 6, 2002:"Steel Magnolias" at Fireside Dinner-Theatre: $77 with lunch.

June 11, 2002: "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" at Timberlake Playhouse, Mt. Carroll, Ill., with dinner at Oakville Country Club: $57.

June 16, 2002: "The Odd Couple" at Barn II Theater in Goodfield, Ill., with Sunday brunch at the theater: $52.

June 21, 2002: Jim Nabors at Drury Lane Theater, Evergreen Park, with lunch: $85 (four seats left).

June 25, 2002: "Maiming of the Shrew," murder mystery dinner theater in Newton, Iowa, with Maytag exhibit en route: $60.

June 25-30, 2002:Westward Adventure, with grandchildren welcome: $679 (Less for children under 16 and those sharing triple and Quad accommodations; Tri-State; three seats left).

June 27 and Sept. 11: Spirit of Chicago luncheon cruise and Navy Pier: $77.

June 30, 2002: Plus 60 afternoon at John O'Donnell Stadium.