Posted 4:16 PM by Bonnie

My father worked at the American Sterilizer for as long as I can remember until his retirement...my uncle Vinny worked there...and my brother Vinny still does... Three Vinny Rivas's in the same plant... and now a manufacturing plant that has been one of the most stable and desirable places to work in Erie is shutting down and moving it's plant to Mexico for cheaper labor. What is going on with America? Why is the Bush administration trying to turn us into a third world country by not only allowing businesses to move to other countries for cheaper labor, leaving Americans unemployed, but encouraging them to do so with incentives? I have to agree with Hillary Clinton that this is the worst administration America has ever seen.

Steris Corp., an Ohio-based company that had bought out longtime Erie manufacturer AMSCO a decade ago, stunned its workers and the community Monday when it announced that it was shipping all of its Erie-based manufacturing operations to Mexico.

Soon, 450 jobs will be gone.

Soon, another piece of Erie's industrial base will become history.

Sadly, we've heard this story many times before.

Here is what workers had to say as they left Steris Corp. Monday after hearing that all of the plant's 450 manufacturing jobs would end within the next 18 months. Workers will be laid off in stages during that time, Steris executives said.

"There's disbelief. Even my boss couldn't believe it. He was shaking. He just couldn't believe it.

Henry Fish wonders if Steris Corp. will end up regretting its decision to move its manufacturing operation to Mexico.

"I'm not sure it's really a good decision. If I was (at Steris), I wouldn't have done it," said Fish, the 80-year-old retired chief executive of the former American Sterilizer Co.

AMSCO, founded in Erie in 1898, was widely regarded as one of the world's top manufacturers of medical equipment.

Radu Bogdan didn't plan on reworking his résumé at age 53.
But he'll have no choice, after learning Monday that his 16-year career as a Steris Corp. machinist will be eliminated sometime in the next 18 months as the company moves its 450 Erie manufacturing jobs to Mexico.

"It did not sink in yet," Bogdan said as he drove home to tell his family the difficult news.

Bogdan was planning on working for the company until he retired.

And neither did my brother at age 57... and my parents who are now in their 80's are unsure of what will happen to their health plan, that followed my father after his retirement from The American Sterilizer Company.

Happy 2006 everyone....and may we survive the Bush administration without going into a depression.