A delegation of Grinnell leaders went to Minnesota last week in an effort to keep the Donaldson Company from making further cuts in its Grinnell workforce. The maker of filtration systems reportedly eliminated some jobs in recent weeks with plans to cut more, but no numbers have been released. Grinnell Mayor Gordon Canfield says he was accompanied on the trip by members of the city council, the chamber of commerce and others.
Mayor Canfield says they made the trip to Bloomington to talk with the company’s operations manager, who said the manufacturing business is highly competitive and they have to do what they can to stay afloat. Canfield says an undisclosed number of jobs are being eliminated in central Iowa for work that will reportedly be transferred out of the country. Canfield says he thinks the Grinnell plant will be able to remain open, though no one is saying how many jobs have been lost.
Canfield says some of the production will move from time to time but as far as he knows, the Grinnell plant will not be closed. He says those who are displaced will get federal assistance with retraining and finding new work since the layoffs were the result of foreign competition.
Canfield says the layoffs are a big disappointment. He says “It’s unfortunate but there’s not a whole lot we can do about the situation. We have said to the Donaldson people that we as civic leaders in Grinnell would hate to see them close the plant and we would do anything we can to help make sure that the plant stays open well into the future.” A company spokesman would not disclose the number of cuts.