GILROY
– Laid-off employees and residents here are still reeling from
Friday’s shocking news that the Indian Motorcycle Company has
closed the doors of its Gilroy factory.
GILROY – Laid-off employees and residents here are still reeling from Friday’s shocking news that the Indian Motorcycle Company has closed the doors of its Gilroy factory.
“People are so stressed out and depressed, they kind of want to take some time off; but a lot of them can’t afford to take time off,” former employee Daniel Tice said Monday. “A lot of my friends, they were literally just paycheck-to-paycheck.”
On Monday morning, some of the 380 people who would normally have showed up at Indian’s Tenth Street factory for work came instead to pick up their final paychecks and personal effects. Security guards escorted them in a few at a time; those waiting to enter formed a line outside the front door.
Some of these former coworkers exchanged phone numbers. Some agreed to meet for lunch. “What are you going to do now?,” was a common question. “Take a vacation,” was a frequent response.
Workers and local employment officials agreed that there aren’t many jobs in this area for those with industrial training. Many may have to look for jobs in other fields. Some will likely leave the area. Tice, who had been a test rider for the Indian factory since it opened in 1998, said he’s thinking of going to Kingman, Ariz., where Ford Motor Company has a plant. If he can’t keep testing motorcycles for a living, he said, maybe he can test cars.
But like his former Indian peers, Tice is starting the process of registering with the unemployment office and searching through job ads. Some have more time to look than others, depending on their financial situation. Indian officials did not say how much its employees had been paid, but Tice said he thought assembly jobs ranged from about $9 to $20 an hour, depending on skill and experience.
“We definitely made less than Harley-Davidson employees,” Tice said, “and when you factor in the cost of living here, we made a lot less.” Harley-Davidson, the biggest American motorcycle maker, has factories in York, Penn., Kansas City, Mo. and Wauwatosa, Wis.
The closing has vastly added to the ranks of Gilroy’s unemployed. Indian executive vice president estimated that the company had recruited only 25 to 50 workers, all white-collar, to Gilroy. The rest of the 380-person workforce had come from within 50 miles of the city, he said.
For these former employees, Indian is effectively finished. Whether the company is gone for good, however – or even gone for long – remains to be seen.
A posting Monday on Business Wire painted a picture that was – from a corporate perspective, at least – decidedly less bleak than had been implied Friday, when Executive Vice President Fran O’Hagan said the company had run out of money and described bankruptcy as a likely next step.
In the Business Wire article, Indian announced it had ceased production and laid off its staff to conserve cash and preserve its assets.
“These steps were taken in order to allow the board time to explore other options that would permit the company to continue as a going concern,” Indian Board Chairman Frank J. O’Connell said. “We have made tremendous progress in the last few years in rebuilding the Indian brand, and we are hopeful that a way can be found to maintain the viability of the Company.
“At present the company is operating with a small group of management in place and will continue to do so until a decision is made concerning Indian’s future,” O’Connell added.
What this decision will be is unknown. Bankruptcy is one option, O’Hagan said, but not the only one. While O’Hagan confirmed that no one has yet offered to buy Indian out, it could still happen – though the firm has no plans to go this route.
“If somebody showed up tomorrow, I imagine (the board of directors) would be very interested in selling to them.”
Businesses near the Tenth Street plant lost a wealth of regular customers with the loss of the Indian workforce.
Indian workers frequented the shopping center across Alexander Street from the factory. Gaeta’s Taqueria owner Maria Gaeta said that on an average weekday, Indian employees made up about 50 of her 100 lunch customers. Soon, she said, she will “probably” have to lay off one or more employees herself to adjust to the smaller crowds.
“I don’t know because this was the first week,” Gaeta said regarding layoffs of her own staff. “After a few weeks, we’re going to see the difference.
“This was something sad,” she added as she closed the restaurant for the night Monday. “Nobody was here today.”
It was 50 years since Indian shut down for the first time. Indian had been America’s first motorcycle maker, with beginnings in 1901 in Springfield, Mass. The company remained closed from 1953 until 1998, when it reopened in Gilroy.
