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A spirit that is not afraid

Pace Industries Closes End of July Leaving 157 Jobless

Pace Industries, a die-casting facility, announced May 21 it will close its doors by July 20, leaving 157 employees jobless.

Michael Bakaric, the vice president of operation at the Auburn division, said the state of the economy was the main factor behind the decision to close the plant.

"I knew that Pace, as a complete corporation, got forced into a corner like many, many other major corporations did," he said. "The unfortunate part about it is that everybody just works every day and does the absolute best job they can, and you never want to believe that the exact plant that you are at would be targeted for a closure, but you never can tell either."

Priscilla Dismukes, the plant's human resources manager, began working at Pace in September 2005 and had hoped on staying there for a while.

"We were really saddened to hear it," she said. "We've got a lot of good people working here, really hard workers."

Bakaric, who has been in manufacturing for 24 years, said Pace Industries is the most people-oriented company he has ever worked for.

The plant's market-placed chaplain helps to further education and training programs that include the entire workforce, and these programs make everyone close-knit, he said.

"Job loss is never good news, and now we have to focus on finding jobs for the people that lost their jobs as part of that closing," said Arndt Siepmann, director of industrial recruitment for the city of Auburn.

Since the announcement of the closure, several steps have been taken to help the soon-to-be displaced employees.

The vice president of human resources from the corporate offices came to Auburn to talk with all the employees about local possibilities.

Also, the Alabama Department of Labor will offer training programs that hone workers' current skills and help build new ones to help them be more marketable in the future, said Bakaric.

Siepmann is optimistic that all the 157 employees will find new jobs.

"We are confident that we will be able to offset the employment impact that this closing has, and we are working hard to do this," he said.

Siepmann stated the company has not announced the future plans for the facility.

"The company right now is holding the facility," he said. "It is not putting it on the market."


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