An Alarming trend: Mack layoffs are a sign of the times
The first Mack Brothers truck was produced in 1907 and the name became synonymous with quality and durability. DONALD R. SERFASS/TIMES NEWS
Singer Billy Joel sized up a bad situation in 1982.
"We're living here in Allentown. And they're closing all the factories down. Out in Bethlehem they're killing time, filling out forms, standing in line."
At the time, Bethlehem Steel was in trouble, even though it was the second largest steel-maker in the world. The company's 1,600-acre operation, an amazing 4 miles long, was doomed after a proud history.
Locally made steel helped to build the George Washington Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, Chrysler Building, Grand Coulee Dam, Hoover Dam and the list goes on.
But soon, the plant would trim 800 jobs.
By 1998 the plant was gone. In October 2001, Bethlehem Steel Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. One by one, industries that fortified the Lehigh Valley have dwindled.
In November, Kraft Heinz Co. announced it will close its Lehigh Valley plant where they produce A1 steak sauce and Grey Poupon mustard. The closing will put 415 workers out of jobs.
On Tuesday, Mack Trucks Inc. near Allentown announced intentions to lay off 400 workers, more than 20 percent of its employees, citing less demand for the product.
The firm was founded in 1900 as the Mack Brothers Company, producing the first model 1907. Company headquarters were in Allentown from 1905 to 2009, at which point they moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. However, production of the full product line still takes place near Allentown and other sites.
Mack Trucks has a long, solid record of excellence. And it's not a good sign when America needs fewer trucks.
These job losses in the Lehigh Valley reflect an alarming trend in the Rust Belt.
But it's something already experienced in the many towns of the coal regions north of Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton.
In Carbon and Schuylkill counties, bastions of employment such as Atlas Powder Company, J.E. Morgan Mills and Palmerton's New Jersey Zinc disappeared.
In fact, when the coal, railroad and, finally, textile industries faded away, many local workers traveled south to feed their families.
Able-bodied men and women from places like Jim Thorpe, Tamaqua, Lansford and Lehighton found good-paying jobs at Steel, or perhaps in the wide variety of retail stores such as Hess's, H. Leh & Co., and Zollinger-Harned.
Today, they're all gone.
The dominating industries of our parents and grandparents are distant memories.
Their demise is evidence of a shift in America's economy. We're veering away from industrial manufacturing and a population known for making things.
Each year we churn out more and more high school and college graduates to an economy lacking a strong base of industrial vitality.
Hopefully the day will come when things swing the other way. Hopefully leadership in Harrisburg can step up to the plate and work toward making our state an attractive place to set up shop.
Billy Joel saw it this way:
"We're waiting here in Allentown, for the Pennsylvania we never found."
That's not true. We found it, all right. It was right here in our hands, solid as steel and built like a Mack truck.
But we lost it, and we need to find a way to get it back.
By Donald R. Serfass | dserfass@tnonline.com
