Bobcat workers estimate few will move from Bismarck to Gwinner

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - Bobcat company workers in Bismarck got the news early this morning. The plant will be closed by the end of the year and the bulk of its 475 jobs shifted to Gwinner, in southeastern North Dakota.

Workers were told to go to the Bismarck Civic Center about 8 a.m., where they got the news. Ron Vogel has been a welder at the Bismarck plant for 26 years.

He says "there were a lot of chins hanging on the floor." Separate unions represent workers at the Bismarck and Gwinner plants. Vogel says workers laid off earlier at the Gwinner plant will have first shot at the additional jobs there.

He estimates only about 10 percent of the workers at the Bismarck plant will transfer to Gwinner. Sam Ude (YOOD) says he's worked as a welder at the plant since it opened 35 years ago, as have many of his co-workers. He says they're all in their 50s and may not be hirable.

Company spokeswoman Laura Ness Owens said 475 positions at the Bismarck plant will be phased out between October and December. She said about 390 of those positions will be switched to the Gwinner plant, which is larger.

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