7am News, Sports and Obits
Latest WGIL news
Click to play or
Right click and "Save Target As" to download
Click for Galesburg, Illinois Forecast
Home - Cancellations - Community Events - Contact Us - Mornings - News - Obituaries - Pictures - Programs - Special Events Audio - Sports - Weather
Union, Gates Officials Happy for Job, Plant Additions
Officials with a local union and a local plant say they're glad to be able to bring a couple dozen new jobs to Galesburg.

Gates Rubber and the United Steelworkers of America Local 685 helped announce Friday that 25 jobs have been created at the Galesburg Gates plant through a renovation of part of the plant that turned it into a distribution center for industrial hoses.

Steelworkers Local President Dave Barbero says the union and Gates management really worked together on this one. "The cooperation between (the union and plant management) showed our capability to meet guideslines that Gates had set for us, and show our productivity in everything that we do," Barbero said. "Without our members, and without local management, Gates probably wouldn't even have considered us for this expansion."

Gates plant manager Logan Stiers says Galesburg was up against several other out-of-state Gates plants for the jobs, and is glad the local plant won out. "I think (Gates executives) looked at overall capital investment, workforce availability, cost competitiveness, and the incentives that we received from the State of Illinois," Stiers said. "Those four things combined helped us to achieve these jobs here in Galesburg."

Those state incentives were for job creation and retention, and also for job training -- all of which the Monmouth-based Western Illinois Economic Development partnership helped facilitate.

You can hear the full announcement by CLICKING HERE (mp3 format).
08 22 08 by Newsroom
News management powered by Xpression News

Click here for the WGIL News Archive

Click here for national news

The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.