AlliedSignal, which once boasted of 1,200 employees in Rhode Island, has given the 60 remaining FRAM employees at its East Providence plant until Jan. 7 to decide whether to move with the division to Danbury, Conn., relocate to another facility in Ohio, or accept a layoff package, a company official confirmed.
Only the company’s Bendix marketing group will remain here, with what some sources say are 75 employees, although probably less since a company spokesman said some of those “people have gone.”
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
Asked whether the company would close or move the Bendix group, the spokesman said simply: “that’s a question that nobody can answer.”
The spokesman referred to the human resources department other questions about the layoff package the company was offering employees. The human resources department did not return telephone calls.
Layoffs at Allied’s facility had become commonplace over the last decade, as the company continued to decrease the workforce here, even while maintaining Rhode Island as its North American headquarters for its automotive products group. A year ago, however, when company officials confirmed Allied’s latest layoffs in East Providence, they also described the company’s Rhode Island workforce as “a moving target.”
In an anonymous, but impassioned letter to Providence Business News, an employee, noting the paper’s previous coverage of the layoffs, wrote of what he or she called “the final chapter” in a story that began 69 years ago, when Allied first located here, and of a company, FRAM, that was founded here. “We have been told that we need to decide our fate by January 7,” the letter began. And of the choices, the writer said that “for most of us there is no option. We cannot afford to move to Ohio, nor accept the higher cost of living in Connecticut.
“We represent two great automotive lines — FRAM and Autolite — that have done very well here in Rhode Island,” the letter said. “Many of us have put our whole lives into the company only to be thrown out with only a six month ‘thank you.’ And we all deserve better.”
Recently, however, according to company reports its automotive products division has not done that well, while the company overall has flourished. In its latest quarterly report, issued in mid-November, Allied reported net sales for its first nine months of $11.8 billion, a 7 percent increase over a year ago. But the transportation products net income of $28 million was 65 percent lower than a year ago, and the company noted that “net income was also lower for the automotive products group.”
The report says the transportation products division includes the automotive products group and truck brake systems groups. The Morristown, New Jersey, based company’s net income for the nine months rose 14 percent to $979 million.
Allied, which describes itself as an advanced technology and manufacturing company, employs more than 70,000 people worldwide. Its products include aerospace and automotive, and chemicals, fibers, plastics and advanced materials. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: ALD), the company’s stock was trading at $43.81 mid-week last week. Its 12-month low was $32.63 and its 12-month high, $47.56.
The closing of the Rhode Island operation comes as little surprise. A year ago, in its third-quarter report, the company had said that it planned to consolidate its automotive products group, while repositioning some of its businesses. The company has been in Rhode Island for 69 years, once manufacturing aftermarket auto products here. But five years ago the manufacturing operation closed, leaving sales, marketing and headquarters support in Rhode Island.
For many families here, Allied had been the only employment they knew.
“FRAM started in Rumford, Rhode Island more than 60 years ago. Many families grew up working here and are proud to have been a part of a terrific company,” the letter writer said. “A company where the administration cared for its employees and made everyone feel they were part of something very special. Now, all that is only a memory.
“Maybe people won’t care about the company or more importantly the employees, maybe they will,” the letter said.
“The politicians won’t because the elections are over but we’re sure your readers deserve to hear the truth.
“Hopefully you’ll see the human interest side of this story as well as the obvious business story — the loss of yet another business from Rhode Island. We are human, we have given our all to a company that doesn’t care about anything except what Wall Street says. We’re just the final chapter of what could have been a long-standing story.”
