Mid-South Set to Rebuild
Tuesday January 25, 2005
McKee, KY (AP) -- An electronics company in Jackson County destroyed by fire earlier this month is planning to restart some production by week's end.
Many of Mid-South Electronics' 720 employees could be back to work by Feb. 6.
"Almost all will be offered the chance" to return to their jobs, said Harold Weaver, chairman and chief executive officer of Mid-South Industries of Gadsden, Ala. Mid-South is the parent company of the Annville factory, which manufactures ice makers and dispensers for home refrigerators.
"It's good we're going to be back to work as soon as we are," said Josh Bryant of Annville, who has worked for two months in ice-bucket assembly.
"They're getting back into production faster than anybody thought they could," Jackson County Judge-Executive Tommy Slone said.
A fire burned down the facility in Annville on Jan. 16, leaving the rural community devastated.
Mid-South employees learned of the plans in a meeting in McKee with management Monday night, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported Tuesday. The meeting was closed to the public and the news media.
Company officials are eager to get up and running to fill the heavy volume of orders for companies it supplies, such as Frigidaire and General Electric, Weaver said.
The workload means there will be two shifts working 12-hour days for six or seven days a week for an indefinite period, Weaver said.
Mid-South will set up production lines in three buildings in the Jackson County Regional Industrial Park in Annville and in a rented warehouse in Clay County, Weaver said.
Several employees interviewed by the newspaper after the meeting said Weaver told them they'd be working seven days a week.
Jay House, an assembly-line worker, said he wasn't happy to hear about the grueling schedule.
"You don't have any time with your kids or anything," he said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation. All 21 workers in the plant at the time escaped uninjured.