Brighter days for Grenada plant

GRENADA, Miss., July 23, 2006 – The hundred-plus employees at the steel stamping plant could see their jobs evaporating as the company slid into a 
death spiral.

Grenada Stamping and Assembly had put most of its efforts into steel wheel covers for decades while the automotive industry shifted to aluminum wheels and 
plastic covers.

Its main auto parts customer, Oxford Automotive, was in a financial mess of its own and had pulled work from the Grenada facility.

On that news, other customers got the jitters and threatened to yank their contracts.

By late 2003, the company was a dinosaur. The dingy building was falling apart. Its presses were worn and outdated. Employees were working Monday through Thursday on good weeks and company managers had no money to invest in 
new equipment.

Allene Tolliver worked a late shift and rarely got to see her two teenage sons play baseball after school.

"At that time it looked like the doors were going to close," she said. "It was scary."

Seeing the curtains drawing, plant managers, who collectively owned the company, began looking for a buyer. Little did they know, in fewer than three years, the plant would have a new line of presses, a fistful of industry quality awards and a pile of new contracts.

Ice Industries, a Toledo, Ohio-based manufacturing company, took over management in February 2004 and took ownership of the bankrupt plant 13 months later. Officially renamed Ice Industries Grenada Stamping and Assembly, the plant, which makes steel automobile part, took on work for Nissan suppliers PK USA, Tower Automotive, Yorozu Corp. and some directly for Nissan.

In Grenada County, where about 30 percent of jobs are in manufacturing, Phillip Heard, executive director of the Grenada Chamber of Commerce, said a turnaround couldn't have been better placed.

"We didn't know they were in trouble at the time, but it would have been an impact. But thank goodness," he said. "Any time a community less than 15,000 and a county of less than 25,000 loses that amount of jobs, it's going to hurt."

Grenada Stamping employs 137 people now, but it's shooting for 600 within 
three years.

"That's the kind of industry you want, forward-looking and growth-oriented. More jobs, more income and a better quality of life for residents," Heard said.

Rick Stanford, production manager at Grenada Stamping, has been a long-time employee and worked through the transition.

"We had heard all these great things about Ice Industries, so we were expecting major changes when the new plant manager came in," he said.

But he and other plant leaders were puzzled by plant manager Gary Houston's 
first edict.

"His starting point was to clean up the employee bathrooms. We put in new fixtures, painted everything and put in new lighting," Stanford said. "Second was the cafeteria and breakrooms. New ceilings for them, lighting and air conditioning."

And so went the improvements during the 13-month management period before Ice Industries took ownership. Town hall meetings for employees were held every two weeks, along with plant cookouts and free company-logo work shirts. Houston also posted a series of charts throughout the plant, detailing production quality, time, efficiency and accuracy.

"Every meeting, we'd ask employees if they knew how to read them. Slowly but surely, we got everyone trained. It's another way we can communicate and gives them more of a part in the process," Stanford said.

The new management organized a poll, just days before finalizing the plant ownership transfer, that asked employees whether they wanted to remain unionized. The United Steel Workers of America had long represented employees, but management sensed union membership was dropping.

During the 13-month transition, Ice managers signed a temporary agreement with the local union leaders to renegotiate after the ownership transfer as the bankruptcy would void all the plant's contracts. But the poll results showed more than 60 percent of employees who responded didn't want to remain union, and the new management felt absolved of the agreement.

Union representatives took the matter to the National Labor Relations Board where a judge found the poll illegal and called some of Ice's tactics "coercive" and "disingenuous." A judge ruled managers, if requested, must bargain with the union on behalf of the employees.

Stanford said the plant remains nonunion.

Court filings show two managers were fired in the ownership transfer but most were kept. Company officials would not discuss the financials of the deal or the company's current numbers. But Stanford said the company should "turn the corner" in the next few months.

Hourly pay varies with experience, but Houston said Ice's system gives everyone the same raise when the company does well. Tolliver said she was glad for an initial raise when Ice took over. Her pay went from $8.40 to more than $10 an hour, 
she said.

After Ice Industries took full ownership, it began dumping in serious money. Feeder lines were added to refurbished presses that increased their output. And two robot welders were installed, expanding the plant's range of products.

Cranes were installed to move heavy press dies. Hydraulic equipment was added to some press lines to save die-changeout time and a crack assembly team was brought in to fabricate carts, lifts and racks that hold heavy press pieces, saving employee backs and knees.

With new efficiencies and labor-saving practices, production jumped from fewer than 7 million parts produced in 2003 to 10.2 million in 2005. The plant is on track this year to produce more than 15 million parts.

Although awards show plant's quality on many of its parts is second to none, the production floor itself still has a ways to go. Some areas aren't painted or well-lit. Several potholes cordoned off on the concrete floor threaten to swallow forklift tires, and there's no air conditioning.

But none of that bothers Patrick Yates, a three-year employee.

"Things have really come a long way. I'm making a whole lot more and have real good benefits," he said. "Ice Industries has been really good, and everybody's generally satisfied. It can't get much better."

A search of online records showed no inspections by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since Ice Industries has owned the plant. Still, by many accounts, the 400,000- square-foot plant is in better shape than ever.

Forty-year employee James Golliday, now a line supervisor, has seen the plant change hands at least five times.

"This is the best. We have more to work with - more parts, more material and we can just set things up and let them run," he said.

Houston said it's hard to refurbish a plant, but he's not nearly done. The tool room is in the middle of a $1.5 million renovation and another new line of presses is on the way. "When you take over a plant, you inherit all its problems, all its debts and the morale of the employees," he said. "It's far easier to build a new plant and hire a new work force, but I wouldn't do it any other way."