Vacuum Maker Hailed as Savior Quits Gulf Town
The New York Times has pick up on the inelegant departure of Oreck from the Coast. Why? At least in part because their workers don’t have housing in the Katrina-ravaged region:
The company says it cannot get enough insurance to cover its plant here, and cannot hire enough skilled workers to replace those who never returned after the storm, mostly because they had nowhere to live. [...] Finding workers is a challenge now along the Mississippi coast. In Hancock County, to the west of here, employers have booked all of the recruitment booths at a job fair scheduled for Jan. 25, seeking workers for jobs in casinos, factories or power companies. In Biloxi, to the east, the Gulf Coast Medical Center says it is struggling to find workers, and so are insurance companies, restaurants and trucking companies.
Signal International, which makes and repairs offshore drilling rigs, just announced that it had brought 200 welders and other craftsmen here from India to work in its shipyard in Pascagoula, on the eastern end of the coast. In a statement, the company cited ?chronic labor shortages? after the hurricane.
Workers who are available are more expensive. ?The cost of labor is a problem for everyone,? said Jim Craig, who directs local programs for the Mississippi Development Authority. ?It doesn?t matter if it?s a convenience store or a shipbuilder.?
Posted by ladd at 12:10 PM in Legislature, Workforce, National | Email this entry
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