Nixon stood with Noranda officials twice in the last four years to announce major expansion packages. Now those are on hold.
A day that started with a positive major jobs announcement by Gov. Jay Nixon in one part of the state ended in troubling economic news in another part of the state.
Early in the morning, the Democratic governor’s administration was taking a victory lap about the announcement of new jobs in the heart of Ferguson, Mo., after weeks of tension surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown.
But just eight hours later, the news out of New Madrid was the exact opposite. Noranda Aluminum, one of Southeast Missouri’s largest employers, announced Tuesday afternoon that it would be laying off as many as 200 workers – nearly one in five – at its New Madrid, Mo., smelter. Their decision came after the Missouri Public Service Commission last month ruled against the company’s request for an even lower electric rate from Ameren Missouri.
Along with the reduction of jobs, Noranda also announced it would put on hold its $75 million in new capital expansion projects – one announced in 2010 and another last year. Nixon was on hand for both of those announcements, the first of which happened almost exactly four years ago to the day.
Several Southeast Missouri politicians were on hand for Noranda’s announcement on Tuesday. Nixon, a Southeast Missouri native himself from Jefferson County, was not among them.
Instead, he said in a statement that he was upset by Noranda’s announcement.
“The announcement today by Noranda to reduce its workforce substantially and put $75 million in capital projects on hold is unfortunate for the region and for our state,” he said. “The job losses announced today are particularly troubling because the Office of Public Counsel had proposed a workable path forward, supported by consumer advocates, that would have protected ratepayers and avoided this unfortunate outcome.”
The statement stood in contrast to the one sent out earlier in the day, when his administration announced that it had helped orchestrate a deal with the Centene Corporation to locate a new claims processing center in Ferguson, adding 200 new jobs to the community. That announcement came after the exposure of racial and economic strife in the mostly black St. Louis suburb following the police shooting of Brown, an 18-year-old, unarmed black man.
Nixon’s office said the administration “is partnering with St. Louis Community College to provide targeted job training resources through the Missouri Works Training program.”