Carrier closing leaves void in Warren, surrounding counties

The company announced the closing last year and in recent weeks began a staggered layoff schedule. But the notice didn’t make things easier for longtime employees like Charles Gann, who reported to work for the last time Thursday after 36 years.

“It’s kind of like you’re going to have to take your arm off,” Gann said. “It’s kind of like losing an old friend. You almost get up and go in without thinking about it.”

Gann is one of about 820 employees who lost their jobs during plant’s final, two-week production run that ended Friday.

Prior to that, about 500 employees went through voluntary layoffs, said Carrier Corp. spokeswoman Margaret Gan-Garrison.

Company officials said the plant’s work will be transferred to Charlotte, N.C.; Tyler, Texas; and Monterrey, Mexico.

“We have excess manufacturing capacity,” Gan-Garrison said. “We like to be able to improve the productivity and our company’s asset, so that’s one of the main rationales behind this.”

Gann said he and many of his co-workers stayed with the company to draw severance pay and benefits, an arrangement agreed upon by company officials and labor union leaders during collective bargaining.

The plant, about 70 miles northwest of Chattanooga, has employed fathers and sons from Warren and surrounding counties since 1969 making commercial air conditioning and ventilation products. At its peak, it employed as many as 2,000 people.

Several supplier businesses opened in the area after Carrier came, employing hundreds of people and selling crates, packaging and parts.

Don Rigsby, executive director of the Warren County Chamber of Commerce, said a 14-county area will feel the repercussions of the closing.

“I think there’s about 750 or so (Carrier employees) from Warren County. The other counties are going to have to help absorb this,” Rigsby said.

The building of nearly 1 million square feet was bought by P.R. Trading last year and officials hope to attract a new large employer.