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As Banner sets to close, employees begin new lives
Published 12:00 p.m., March 23, 2009
Work at the Banner Engineering plant in Fergus Falls is scheduled to finish by the end of the week, though most employees are already gone.
March 13 was the last day of work for the majority of Banner employees, said Ken Cavanaugh, who’d worked at the plant for about eight years. About a dozen people were scheduled to stay on through March 27, he said.
Since the announcement of the plant’s closure in November, Banner has begun to transition Fergus Falls product lines to plants in South Dakota, Cavanaugh said. Based in Minneapolis, Banner manufactures photoelectric and other sensors used in factory automation and robotics.
Fergus Falls employees could apply for a handful of positions at the Banner plant in Aberdeen, S.D., Cavanaugh said. He believed four people had accepted positions there, including the plant’s manager.
But for most of Banner’s 74 employees, who hail from communities including Perham, Elbow Lake and Wahpeton, a move is not in the immediate future.
“We like Fergus, we own our home,” Cavanaugh said, referring to he and his wife, “so we’re going to stay and work something out somehow.”
Staff with the Minnesota WorkForce Center visited Banner in November and have continued to assist employees in the months since. Cavanaugh has started applying for jobs with the help of WorkForce staff and was among the Banner employees at the kick-off of the Lakes Area Job Club last week.
The announcement of the plant’s closing was especially difficult because employees had recently received accolades for their work, Cavanaugh said.
“It’s difficult to be laid off, especially when you’re not doing anything wrong,” he said.
Yet employees say they understand the company’s decision was a financial one. In November, the chief operating officer of the Twin Cities-based company said the closure was part of an effort to consolidate Banner’s North American operations. The Fergus Falls plant, located along Weyrens Road, opened in 1994.
“I feel that Banner was very fair about this,” said Jody Dahl, a Banner employee of 14 years.
Dahl, whose last day was also March 13, will start training as a certified nursing assistant with Pioneer Retirement Community this week. Banner employees were a close group and a great bunch of people to work with, she said.
Cavanaugh agrees.
“It really was a great place to work,” he said, describing fellow employees as skilled and motivated. “Management was great. We were always respected.”
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The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post. To post a comment you will need to register. Or, if you're already registered but have not included your true, verifiable identity with your registration, you will need to update your account to include your identity. Effective Dec. 1, 2009, all posts appear with the commenter's true identity, which must be verified by site staff. Those who registered prior to Dec. 1, 2009, should be aware that once you update your information with your true identity, all prior posts under your user name will also indicate your true identity. If you do not wish to link yourself to prior comments, you should register again with a different user name.Posted by watermelon (anonymous) on March 23, 2009 at 3:19 p.m. (Suggest removal)
You may have found them, but you have lost your marbles.
Posted by outinthewoods (anonymous) on March 23, 2009 at 3:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr_Lincoln..... your point....is????????
Posted by metasonics (Jamie Cooper) on March 23, 2009 at 3:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
here is a perfect example of the huge sucking sound Ross Perot warned NAFTA would create. We always knew the electronic assembly industry was a shrinking even before there were any plants here.
I was laid off from the old quality circuits myself and know how this must feel for these former Banner employee's. I caught leeches, and worked in the Daily Journal mail room, for a few months after my lay off and eventually found work at Northern Contours. some of my former co-workers went to banner, telnet, and the Pelican Turkey plant.
unfortunately I don't know of any solution locally right now. I remember thinking of converting the old plant into a aquaculture operation to provide our area with fresh seafood, but that was too much of a pipe dream to pull off with no income.
I wish you all luck and hope you land on your feet running.
perhaps instead of the city throwing 750,000.00 into the lake Alice pipe dream, they could spend those funds on attracting or creating jobs?
according to "America's Career InfoNet"
or http://www.acinet.org the top 10 growing industries are:
1 Management, scientific, and technical consulting services
2 Services for the elderly and persons with disabilities
3 Gambling industries
4 Home health care services
5 Educational support services, public and private
6 Community care facilities for the elderly
7 Other financial investment activities
8 Facilities support services
9 Securities and commodity contracts, brokerages, and exchanges
10 Internet publishing and broadcasting
these are the kinds of employment we should try to attract as a community
Jamie Cooper
Posted by metasonics (Jamie Cooper) on March 23, 2009 at 4 p.m. (Suggest removal)
if anyone has a more up to date list of the top 10 growing industries or any info that could help, they should post it here.
Posted by HeidiLyn (anonymous) on March 23, 2009 at 7:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
As a former Banner employee I am saddened to hear of this closing, Good Luck to all the former employees.
I was employed there in 1994 and 1995, in the plant's "infancy" I worked on the 3rd line, as a packager, we had a lot of fun and did enormous amounts of work! (Tammy, Bea, Teresa, Jona, Kathy, I miss you guys and still think of you often.) we were a very close knit group back then I hope you all are doing great! Jona, I could really use a brain teaser....
Heidi (Boes) Watson
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