WELLSVILLE, N.Y.—The sale of the Dresser-Rand Corporation’s machinery plant here, announced Feb.
19, will cost as many as 250 workers their jobs. Siemens, the German-owned company that acquired Dresser-Rand in 2015 is selling the plant to Curtiss-Wright Corp., which will close it in two years after transferring the work to North Carolina. The plant, opened in 1916, makes steam turbines, compressors, and valves, primarily for the U.S. Navy, as well as rotors and other components used for generating and distributing power. Siemens officials also told workers that they would move the plant’s commercial power-generation manufacturing to its facilities in Charlotte, N.C., and elsewhere. The announcement “came without warning, and without any regard to the workers, their families, nor the future of their families,” Ron Warner, directing business representative for District 65 of the International Association of Machinists, which has represented workers at the Wellsville plant since 1942, told the Buffalo News. “Dresser-Rand and their dedicated employees have been a staple in the Wellsville community for over 100 years,” IAM President Robert Martinez Jr. said in an emailed statement. “This decision by Siemens shows that they have no loyalty to working families and local communities.”Read more
