Ingersoll plant closure leaves 50 people out of work

By John Tapley/Ingersoll Times

Posted 2 days ago

An estimated 50 people are without jobs after Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. announced it is permanently closing its Ingersoll plant.

Without warning, employees were gathered together at 11 a.m. Friday and given letters announcing the closure, said Kevin Piper, who has worked at Atlantic's Ingersoll facility since 1988.

"It's a shock," he said, explaining that some people were laid off about a month ago and production had slowed down but "I don't think anybody expected it'd be a permanent cease in the operations."

The Ingersoll plant is one of five corrugated packaging manufacturing facilities owned by Atlantic.

Signed by Mark Ragotte, Atlantic's vice-president of manufacturing, the letter employees received attributed the closure to the depressed economy and high dollar, "resulting in a decline in Canadian manufacturing, which has also reduced total corrugated demand."

The letter also provided employees with "eight weeks notice of termination of employment" and notified them that they would not have to report for work during that time.

"Most of them were pretty shocked," said Piper about his co-workers' reaction to the news, adding that some of them had recently purchased homes. "I was hoping to retire out of there."

Piper and two other employees tied the laces of their work boots together and hung them on a fence as they left the plant Friday as a visual reminder of the human impact of the closure.

As workers were being notified of the closure, officials with CEP Local 333, which represents employees at Atlantic Packaging, were in Toronto negotiating a new contract for employees at the Ingersoll plant.

"Our plan for the day was to go there and secure a collective agreement the way we did in (Atlantic's) Mississauga facility last week," said Ken Cole, president and business agent with the union.

He said he received news about the closure at the same time the announcement was made in Ingersoll.

"We knew the industry isn't doing all that well but we didn't think they were going to close," he said. "We were in the middle of bargaining."

Cole said the Ingersoll plant used to be a three-shift operation but was downgraded to a single shift in recent years.

He said the majority of the employees in Ingersoll have been with the company for a long time.

"They're devastated, completely devastated," said Cole about their reaction.

Having served employees at the Ingersoll Plant for 23 years, he said he is also feeling the impact of the closure on a personal level.

"Some of (the employees), I consider very good friends," said Cole.

On Friday, Cole said he planned to contact the company on Monday to start negotiating a closure agreement, including an enhanced severance package for employees.

Contacted by The Ingersoll Times, the company indicated it would have someone available for comment on Monday.

An information meeting on the closure is scheduled for Monday, March 7, at the CAW Hall at 10 a.m. Representatives from Service Canada are expected to be in attendance