About 200 people work at the hose plant. The jobs will be cut over the next 12 months and the work will be moved to plants in Kentucky and Mexico.
Aaron Patterson says union workers at Cooper Standard's hose plant agreed to take millions in concessions to help keep their jobs. He says they put out a great product and consistently beat the workforce at the Kentucky plant that will be staying open. "We have beat the Mt. Sterling, Kentucky plant in productivity, quality standards and we beat them 11 of the 12 months in 2010 in profitability."
The closing will be a big hit to the city of Bowling Green's coffers. Mayor John Quinn tells us, "It will be in the neighborhood of a $200,000 hit to the city of BG and it will obviously have an impact down the line. It will affect neighborhood businesses, groceries and other things along the way."
Quinn also says the incentives offered by the state of Ohio were minimal compared to what the state of Kentucky came up with. "We know Kentucky produced a good incentive package and we think that has a lot to do with the final decision."
State representative Randy Gardner didn't hold back his opinion about the closing. "It's difficult for me as an Ohio legislator to lose anything to Kentucky."
But Gardner says it's what you do after the closing that counts the most. He says work is already underway to get a new business up and running in the plant. "When a football team loses, you don't quit, you recover and you talk about what needs to be done to win the next time and we're already in that phase-- looking for a new manufacturer."
Cooper Standard has another plant in Bowling Green. At this point, that plant will stay open. However, city and state leaders say that plant is likely vulnerable as well and they will do everything possible to keep it up and running.
