Caterpillar Layoffs May Impact Oxford

The Department of Labor announced that unemployment in Mississippi jumped to 7.6 percent in December, above the national average. Lafayette County has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state, but that may soon change. From Oxford, Cari Gervin reports.

On the outskirts of Oxford, Jo Brassell runs a down-home place, Mama Jo’s Country Cookin’. Just like most businesses, the restaurant has been affected by the recession.

“People have been coming in and talking about the money, they don’t have the money to spend,and they bringing their food. We really been slow from October up to now. It’s picking back up.”

But that uptick might not last long. Mama Jo’s is the closest restaurant to the Lafayette County Industrial Park, home to a Caterpillar plant that employs over three hundred people. On Monday, Caterpillar announced it was cutting 20,000 jobs worldwide. Some of those jobs are expected to be in Oxford.

“It will affect my business big time, especially the morning shift.”

Brassell estimates a third of her business comes from the plant, which already laid off sixty temporary workers last fall. Caterpillar has not announced how many layoffs there will be in Oxford, and phone calls to the corporation’s headquarters were not returned by air time.

“I have a feeling that the plant will continue to be there for sure because worldwide they need what we make here, in Oxford,” says Max Hipp,the president of the Oxford Lafayette Chamber of Commerce.

He says the hose couplings made locally are essential to the larger equipment Caterpillar makes, like bulldozers.
The plant was almost destroyed by a tornado a year ago, and Hipp says that because of the renovated facility, he doubts that any layoffs at Caterpillar will be permanent.

“They’ll be hiring back eventually when the economy turns around. When new construction worldwide kicks back up, you’re gonna see people rehiring. And they’re gonna try their best to retain everybody. They may have to go to some temporary things where they won’t work full 40-hour weeks for a while, but I think they’ll eventually bring everybody back.”

In the meantime, as Oxford’s Maytag plant prepares to close this spring, and with the nearby Toyota plant idled indefinitely, unemployment in the area will continue to rise.

For MPB News, I’m Cari Gervin in Oxford.