Program helping laid off General Mills workers

WASHINGTON – Workers recently laid off from aluminum maker Alcoa’s Lafayette plant qualify for federal assistance because they lost their jobs due to foreign trade, federal labor officials recently determined.

That makes the former employees eligible for the Trade Adjustment Assistance program that provides income, education and training and other help.

The former Alcoa workers are the sixth group laid off in Indiana that the federal government determined this year qualified for the assistance. Nearly 800 Hoosier workers have been affected.

Congress recently debated whether to continue the program as part of legislation giving President Barack Obama enhanced authority to reach trade agreements.

Conservative critics, including the Club for Growth and Heritage Action, argue that trade adjustment assistance is an ineffective welfare program.

Many congressional Republicans, including half of Indiana’s eight GOP members, opposed continuing the program.

But Obama said he would not pursue the trade deals without the assistance.

Workers who lose their jobs because of production shifts overseas or import competition become eligible for extended unemployment benefits as well as retraining. Older workers are eligible for a program that boosts their income for up to two years if their new job pays less than their old one.

The program has helped 23,856 Hoosiers since October 2009, according to the Labor Department. There are 944 Indiana workers currently receiving help, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

Assistance is offered through the department’s WorkOne community career centers.

Workers are assigned a case manager to help determine a training or education program, said Joe Frank, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

That could mean going through a degree or certification program, “or something that will get them to their next job,” Frank said.

“We try to do whatever possible to make them as successful as possible,” he said.

Local career centers can be found at WorkOneworks.com.

Workers qualify for the assistance only if the federal government determines they lost their jobs due to foreign competition.

In its application, Alcoa said its workers were laid off because the company lost work it had been doing for Boeing, which instead hired Universal Alloy Corporation. UAC has operations in both the U.S. and Europe.

Alcoa said 75 jobs were affected, including 31 people who took early retirement.

Another Lafayette manufacturer, Oerlikon Fairfield, whose workers applied for the assistance program on behalf of 35 employees this spring, was turned down. The Labor Department said not enough workers were affected to meet the program’s eligibility rules.

Here are the other layoffs that were determined eligible for the assistance this year:

• General Mills in New Albany (400 workers who made refrigerated dough products). Production was shifted to another country.

• Essex Group Inc. in Kendallville (45 workers who made fine magnet wire). Production was moved to Mexico.

• Schott Gemtron in Vincennes (65 workers who made glass products). Schott Gemtron’s food display department was sold to Anthony International.

• Pure Power Technologies in Indianapolis (180 workers who made grey iron and compacted graphite casings used in the production of engines). Increased imports contributed to declines in sales.

• Wabash Technologies Inc. in Huntington (64 workers who made automotive products). Production was moved to Mexico.

Contact Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com