By Kim Zarzour -YorkRegion.com
August 25, 2010
Nearly 50 employees at plants in Richmond Hill and Thornhill will soon be out of work thanks to plant closures announced last week at Eastern Wire & Conduit.
The company, which provides custom flexible conduit and armuoring services, announced Aug. 19 that it will close two Canadian locations due to company restructuring.
Cong Doan, vice-president of operations, said the move will affect about 23 employees in Concord and 24 in Richmond Hill.
Eastern Wire, part of Tyco International Ltd., decided to close the York Region plants as part of a company consolidation, Mr. Doan said.
About 50 per cent of the company products are sold to the United States, he said, adding the plants will be moved closer to their customers.
The closure begins Sept. 17, he said, with the last phase of lay-offs tentatively set for the end of March 2011.
Thornhill MPP Peter Shurman blamed the closures on the McGuinty government’s “failed economic policies”.
The Tory MPP pointed to other recent lay-offs in Thornhill — the 2008 closures of Canac Kitchens and Progressive Moulded that threw 3,000 people out of work and Crown Metal Packaging’s announcement this spring that its Concord plant was closing in December, leaving another 159 people without jobs.
“Strangled by the McGuinty government’s red tape and uncompetitive taxes and now facing sky-rocketing energy costs, is it any wonder that companies like Eastern Wire are shutting their doors?” he said.
But Eastern Wire did not place all the blame on province.
“Indirectly, that might have been part of it,” Mr. Doan said, “but there are so many other factors involved in this decision.”