Federal team on the way:To help workers dealing with Carrier closing
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The Tennessee Republican is putting together a “rapid response team” from nine federal agencies to coordinate benefits and training available for displaced workers. It will also help Tennessee cities compete for new business opportunities, he said.
The action follows announcements earlier this month that Vought Aircraft Industries will close its Nashville plant and move about 1,000 jobs to Dallas and that the Carrier Corp. plant in Morrison will close, eliminating 1,300 positions.
“It’s apparent to me as I go from town to town across Tennessee where workers have been affected, they don’t know where to begin to apply for benefits that are circulating in Washington, to get the information or assistance that the federal government has,” Frist told reporters in a teleconference call.
The team is expected to visit with workers at the plants in late March, Frist said.
The second phase of his plan calls for the team to set up summits — about six weeks later — in each of the state’s three regions to discuss ways to attract business opportunities.
“And this applies to rural communities across Tennessee or suburban or urban communities where when a company moves or workers are displaced, there may be a vacuum we want to fill with good productive jobs,” Frist said.
The team includes officials from Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, Agriculture, Education, Treasury, Health and Human Services departments, as well as the Social Security Administration and Small Business Administration.
The agencies have hundreds of resources, but they haven’t been coordinated and focused on displaced workers, Frist said. That’s exactly what community leaders in Tennessee told him they need.
Gov. Phil Bredesen supports the idea. “It’s something we talked about in advance and we have offered to integrate with the state’s effort,” Bredesen said Friday, noting that Tennessee already has an economic relief “strike force” for such cases.
Frist said he intends to make it a real focus.
“If we can pull it off here, and it becomes a good model and people are working together, I think it is something that can be applied and used around the country,” Frist said.