Hudson Valley Plant Closing After 50 Years, 143 Jobs Eliminated
It was just announced that a Hudson Valley manufacturing plant will be shutting down leaving 143 local workers without a job.
This is not great news for the local economy, as another business has decided to pull out of the area and close up shop. Back in March, Ball Corporation started floating the idea of shutting down its manufacturing plant in Wallkill, NY. The world's largest manufacturer of aluminum cans said at the time that it was exploring the possibility of closing the facility because of the inability to expand.
Space, land and equipment limitations make expansion and upgrades to this facility difficult. To increase production and enable growth of contracted customers, Ball is exploring closure of the Wallkill plant and supplying the unique sizes from other facilities that can produce them.
Ball has now made the decision final and announced this week that employees will be let go in August ahead of the plant shutdown. According to the New York State Department of Labor, the closure will affect 143 employees.
According to Brewbound, the Wallkill facility first opened in 1972 and has been specializing in creating "unique-sized" cans. Ball says it will now have to modify existing production lines at other facilities to make these specialized aluminum cans.
This is actually the third plant closure for Ball in a year. The company has already shut down facilities in Pheonix, Arizona and St. Paul, Minnesota. The manufacturer has also delayed the construction of a new plant they were planning to build in Las Vegas.
Layoffs at the Wallkill plant will occur in August, as the plant is expected to be completely shut down by September 1. Employees are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 363.