IAC announces layoffs in Greencastle

I wonder how much of a bonus will the IAC CEO get this year for cutting the life-blood of 202 families? I certainly hope it's enough to stuff a king-sized mattress so he or she will be able to get a good night's sleep.

It certainly won't be a very merry christmas for 220 families. I'm afraid there will be more lay-offs before it is over. May those families find help.

Unfortunately, this is only the beginning.

Although new restaurants are opening in the city, more and more industry will be leaving. I hate to say it, but Depauw will be the city's saving grace.

" ProblemTransmission " you are kidding right," Depauw will be the city's saving grace." How exactly would they be doing that with addmissions on the way down and the cost on the way up. I do not see them hiring any of the 202 people that are losing their jobs, when they too will have their own budget short comings and have to do reduction in force as well. From my point of view the only thing they will be able to do is to buy the homes of the people laid off after forclosure for pennies on the dollar. Depauw has been doing that for years and seem to be growing and growing. Soon Greencastle will no longer exist, just Depauw.

Was this formerly known as Shenandoah?

Agreed.

My point is that all manufacturing (minus Dixie Chopper and/or Buzzi Unicem) will most-likely disappear, with more & more empty buildings appearing throughout the city.

Depauw will be the only real "draw" that Greencastle will have.

Oh wait, we have a Walmart...

What do we need to do in Putnam County to become "business friendly"? We certainly have the space, since we have so many empty buildings. We have a good workforce (many working out of the county because there are no jobs in county). Good ways in and out of the area. What are we missing? We need more home grown small businesses, with ties to the area, not big firms that move on when the mood hits them. Most of the real growth these days is from the small business people. Maybe there needs to be a city/county/DePauw task force looking into this. Certainly couldn't hurt.

Oh My Goodness obviously does not work at DePauw, as we have already had our budget shortcomings 2 years ago, and our Board of Trustees, along with the dedicated staff and faculty were able to trim the budget specifically so we wouldn't lose any employees. While there was a hiring for a good year in any non-essential positions, coupled with no raises for that fiscal year, no one, and I repeat, no one, was let go because of money, or had their pay cut. Admissions were down by choice, while applications skyrocketed. But income was up, and not because costs went up, but because we lowered our discount rate, meaning fewer students that would not have normally come here because they were being lured by bigger schools were not given discounts on the tuition. No deserving student, as in needing financial assistance because of parents' income, was denied assistance. If you don't believe me, contact the VP of Finance, Brad Kelsheimer. He has a great powerpoint presentation that clearly spells all this out. DePauw offers the best pay and benefits in this community, and I say that from the perspective of a many-time-over generation local, as well as having lived in many prosperous communities far from here. Without DePauw, Greencastle would exist much like Rockville, and while Rockville is quaint and enjoyable, the standard of living is much lower.

Maybe we can make apartments in that new building on Filmore road which we built to attract new business and provide them free to the families which are becoming homeless!

This is an AUTOMOTIVE company. Of course it is struggling now. I feel for the families losing their jobs, but a business cannot employ people when there is not enough work for them. Hopefully they will stay in Greencastle and someday they will increase the workforce again, but it is entirely possible the parent company will close this plant completely. That is the reality of today's economy.

To the DePauw Human Resource Department:

It is amazing to me that qualified candidates who apply for positions at DePauw are never given the professional courtesy of a rejection letter or phone call. I have applied for several positions, and months went by and I heard nothing....still haven't.....even when I called to get an update on the status of the job. It behooves me that someone has let this very simple professional protocol go unchecked. I highly doubt any of the workers laid off at IAC will be hired on at DePauw. Despite current budget cuts, they prefer to hire within, and avoid the large pool of candidates from the Greencastle community.

Greencastle has lost Oxford Automotive, Mallorys, and Techno-Trim with no replacements. Downtown Greencastle is void of a lot of former businesses like Pennys Sears and Prevos as well as a lot of

smaller businesses. And what do we do???? build a spec building to attract a business. How is that working out???? Greencastle needs to take a hard look at itself and look into the future.

What they fail to tell everyone is that Ford moved their production of the Explorer up to Chicago and as a part of their program to save money, they are now making their own interior for the explorer now. Also if the people that worked the RS line (Chrysler Town & Country) would have paid more attention to quality, maybe chrysler wouldn't have pulled the line to go to another plant!

Unfortunetly the employees of IAC have no one to blame but their selves for loosing business in this plant. Most would rather play and socialize more than do their work. We have seen them be high, drunk, hide to go smoke outside, sleep in break areas, quality would rather stamp parts without looking at them and then get them rejected at the auto plant. Upper management is to blame as much, they have their favorites that would get away with anything, while others slave away. All in all, there are many that are suprised this plant has stayed open as long as it has.

Its not the fact of Greencastle being "friendly" its having employees that show up to work, do quality work, management that treats employees with respect. Its ridiculous the amount of employees taking time off, causing depts to be short of employees, but the worst was sending bad parts off all the time. Chrysler, Ford, Toyota get tired of bad parts, 1st shift would bust their butts to do their best (sometimes), then 2nd and 3rd shifts didn't care. It would go back and forth but thats the way it mostly went on. Poor human resource personel, just plain hatefull at times.

But all in all the personel, employee's, upper management, corporate, are all to blame for the loss of this work in Putnam Co.

Wouldn't count on depauw,they have been on a hiring freeze for sometime now!

Where are Putnam County Economic Development Director Bill Dory's comments on this? He's been taking a paycheck from our tax money for quite a while now with NO positive economic impact for our community.

Employers Hr Departments should take notice to good workers that get tired of working for a company that puts up with slackers-sooner or later your hard good quality workers do find another job and leave. Where i work I see it happening-it is so right there in front of them.They may have to drive farther but a good hard working employee that gets treated like crap-and a slacker just drawing a paycheck who get undeserved praise ruins a business in these hard times.And the slackers bully the good worker-that is so wrong.