Optima Batteries moves to Mexico
 

"CBS4's Rick Sallinger speaks with an employee of the Optima battery factory, located near the intersection of Interstate 70 and Airport Road.

This Thanksgiving is a tough one for 140 employees of a battery production firm in Aurora who learned this week their jobs are going to a new plant in Mexico.

For a decade Optima Batteries has produced its product in the United States, but earlier this year employees were informed a new plant was being constructed in the Mexican city of Cienega de Flores.

"When they built that plant in Mexico, what did they tell you?" CBS4's Rick Sallinger asked one employee.

"That half of the production would stay here and the other half to Mexico."

"And now it's all going to Mexico?" Rick asked. "Yeah," the employee said.

Optima workers in Aurora told CBS4 they were asked to train Mexican employees for the new facility.

The company issued a statement saying "the economy has changed dramatically over the past several months and we find ourselves in a very difficult market." Doors will close on Jan. 31.

No time is a good time to lose your job, but especially not now.

"It kind of puts a damper on it knowing in a couple months you don't have a job (and you'll be) going down to unemployment," one worker said.

A spokesperson for the city of Aurora said the timing is unfortunate and they understand the impact on the employees and their families.

The company is part of a much larger firm called Johnson Controls, which said they will provide support and placement services for the employees in Aurora who are losing their jobs."

http://cbs4denver.com/local/Optima.B....2.874937.html

thats why were in this mess our country doesnt build anything any more, sure the stuff is cheaper when its built out of the u.s. but who can afford it if we dont have any jobs.

It really sucks to train someone who is taking your job. That is just wrong for a company to do that,ever.

I was glad to hear that Johnson Controls is going to keep them working.
At least they say they are?

With all of the bad complaints about some of their batteries lately I wonder if the quality will go down even more?

I commend Optima for all of the racing support for events that we have offered to us, I never knew that they weren't making enough money to make it. I hope it is not just greed of the bottom line that is taking them below the border. If it is they will find out very quickly like several companies in my town did that it will not save them a dime. Pacific Scientific moved a whole line down to Mexico and even took a few workers with them and it was 6 months into it when they realized that the people of Mexico lead a different style of life and work ethics and don't really have the education or desire to work as hard as the people who move the company thought. The line was moved right back to Rockford and the losses involved in moving cost everyone.
Greed is a bad thing but it still seems fashionable to those that are.
I hope this isn't about greed.

that sucks
 

tely and jim i agree

its sad .....like these people will be able to go find a battery plant around the corner to get new jobs......not
i worked myself out of a job (finished a construction project recently) and it sucks like i cant even say ,trying to replace my income ...so many people out of work from the halt in construction around here that any job is hard to come by.

our wonderful govt is just gonna throw money at large companies and not to the people...keep execs rich and the working (struggling) class just that.
idea
write every legal adult person in this country a check for 1 million dollars it would be less than they have spent already and the economy would rock like nobodies business.......no that would be to easy and why give money to the people then they dont have leverage over some peoples mindset.right!
i know im just angry that we have idoits(politicians) in control of our country and politics is nothing more than organized crime......

tom

Well if that is the case no more Optima batteries in the cars we build. And you know we have had a like 6 junk new batteries lately. I thought I was the one having bad luck.

Rodger

Jim to me its all greed IMO!! They site the struggling economy the last few months but yet they have a new building built BOY THEY PUT THAT UP FAST!!!:rolleyes: Im just going to say this... I make every effort I can and my wife to buy USA PRODUCTS ONLY!!!!! Okay I know everythings not made in the US,you can't avoid it !! We really need to wake up!!!! Well Optima more that likely won't be under my hood if I can help it!!:soapbox:

Remember what they say about OPINIONS Mario

Actually if you go off the presumption that there's about 100 million working adults and you gave out ONE TRILLION dollars I think each person would get $10,000

To give each person a million the govt would have to print up ONE HUNDRED TRILLION dollars.. lol

Just putting the math into perspective :)

Until our government puts enough taxes on imports to level the playing field we are slowly spiralling downward.

Did you know that Walmart gets a huge percentage of their items from China. If the price of bringing those products here were more equal to us making them, just think how many jobs that alone would create.

What?
 

I for one will no longer buy anything from them!

I wonder what this is going to do for them and the military now? Every rig I have driven has had their product in them...I hope this move pushes the military to buy from someone else.

I know I will source elsewhere for my personal use now!

I have found myself pushing to buy made in the USA products as much as possible and have paid more money for US made products instead of saving a buck...Sometimes it is very hard to do.

I don’t know maybe I am a bit old fashion and am still very patriotic and nationalistic at heart?


Happy holidays,

Tony

I never looked into Optima having problems, just figured I had battery issues. My Yukon has 2 red tops in it, both are junk after 1 year, won't hold a charge enough to light the underhood light after 24 hours ! JUNK! My Camaro has a red top, it dies after about 3-4 days, my 57' has a red top, it dies after about a week. I have checked each vehicle and none have any drain on the electrical system other than the radio preset memory.

I had planned to never buy another Optima battery, this solidifies that !

Jason