Assistant Professor of Geography Mark Bjelland spoke about Onan in class as an example of the trend of companies moving some of their operations to Mexico. Every product goes through that stage where a company makes lots of money, but with lots of companies there is lots of competition. They have to reduce production costs in order to compete, and in other areas of the world there are more relaxed regulations on the environment and health and safety of the workers. Bjelland had concerns about the effect of Cummins' move on St. Peter. You can move production very quickly, but communities can't just pick up and move.
Employees have spouses with jobs and kids in school.
They are rooted in the community, and new work will be hard to find. It's gonna be painful. Vogel had similar fears. I am worried right now what is going to happen. I don't know what people are going to do, if they can find new jobs.