EAST CHICAGO, Ind. (AP) -- Nearly 450 people will lose their jobs as Union Tank Car Co. plans to close its northwestern Indiana plant this spring.
A declining market for railroad tank cars and the cost of operating an older factory forced the closing, Union Tank spokesman Bruce Winslow said Friday. The Chicago-based company has owned the factory for more than 40 years.
Kelly Hounshell, president of the plant's Boilermakers Local 524, said she believed the company was moving production to its newer, nonunion factories in Texas and Louisiana.
The plant was building about 60 tanks per week as recently as September, but the company laid off about 100 workers early this year as production dropped to 30 tanks a week.
''I absolutely believe that they're closing this plant because both plants in the South are nonunion and they can make the tank cars cheaper there, and that they're taking work from here to down there,'' Hounshell said.
Winslow, however, said that the company was ''reducing production overall, not shifting production.''
Union Tank said it was cutting 70 salaried employees and 375 hourly employees with the closure, scheduled for May 30.
Union Tank Car was among more than 100 manufacturing companies owned by the Pritzger family's Marmon Holdings, until 60 percent of the conglomerate was sold to Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The deal was completed March 18.
The sale had no effect on the decision to close the East Chicago plant, Winslow said.
East Chicago Mayor George Pabey said the city had given Union Tank numerous property tax abatements in recent years and that he might seek to recoup that money since the company is leaving the city.
''I will be meeting with city attorneys to see what our options are in that regard,'' Pabey said.
