Manitowoc Foodservice on Sept. 7 announced plans to create a new American Ovens Division headquarters in Cleveland.
Some details of the plan include:
•About 20 local salaried workers were offered transfers within the global corporation.
•About 12 employees will continue working for Manitowoc at a local satellite office that will focus on customer service and technical support for Lincoln-brand ovens.
•About 100 new jobs are expected to be created in Cleveland, where the company already employs 260.
•Local production workers were told they could pay for their own move to Cleveland to apply for the new jobs but would lose seniority and start work at $13.50 an hour, about $5.50 less than they make now.
•Salaried employees were offered 12 weeks’ retention pay for staying until the local operation closes and 16 weeks’ severance, according to the union. Local and corporate company officials didn’t return several messages seeking to verify information for this story.
•Mark Mettler, local union leader, said last week that he’s still trying to get hourly workers severance pay based on number of years worked instead of the company’s offer of two weeks per person – to be paid only if workers meet aggressive production goals until the end of the year.
