Hi,
 
I don't know if you'll be able to review the following link if you are not a NY Times online subscriber.  If you aren't, subscriptions sre still free.
 
After 16 months Oreck is is in the process of leaving its Long Beach, Mississippi (just wanted to see if I could still spell it) factory in the dust.  It opened a new facility in Cookeville, TN last October.  The company claims problems with acquiring insurance and its inability to hire skilled laborers to replace those who did not return after Hurricane Katrina due to unavailable housing.  Owned by private investors and family, Oreck's revenue is estimated at over $200,000,000 a year.
 
Local authority counter-argues that though yes there are problems Oreck may well be leaving due to soon to expire tax breaks.
 
If any forum members can't access this article, I plan to save it as a PDF.  PM me if you'd like one.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/us/nationalspecial/15oreck.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th
 
Venson

Hi Hardsell,
 
Approximately 500 employees will be left behind in Long Beach.  Oreck says it will attempt to help these people find jobs though to what degree waits to be told.  It is hoped by some that if another company that does assembling, molding and the like buys the Long Beach facility it may keep a number of former Oreck employees on.
 
Venson

Nashville is on the New Madrid fault line.  At the turn of the 19th Century about 1807 or so, when much of the area was still unpopulated except for the native American Indians, the area experienced one of the worse, if not the worse earthquake, in US history.  The tremors were so bad, the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia rang, the Mississippi River reversed course and the debris from the river's bottom was launched hundreds of feet into the air.  
 
I suspect Oreck will have to pay for flood insurance and incur additional costs to make the building's location earthquake proof.
 
Carmine D.

Oreck, as well as several other businesses, were featured on the Nightly Business Report.  The topic was the imminent moves and/or closures by many businesses on the Gulf Coast and in particular Mississippi.  
 
Oreck's son and the Oreck vacuum producing plant were featured.  Prior to Katrina, the plant employed 500.  Not so any longer.  Labor costs have been driven up due to the lack of workers to fill the jobs.  Why?  Many people have not moved back since Katrina due to the lack of housing.  More than 70,000 houses were demolished.  At best the Gulf Coast in the past built 2500 new houses a year.  
 
Wages and labor costs have been driven up at least 18 percent and in some cases more.  Economics 101: Supply and Demand.  MacDonald's is paying $9.75 for employees to work the customer food line.  Oreck has had huge turnovers in employees despite raising their wages 11 percent since reopening.  Also cited as an obstacle for staying are the skyrocketing costs for insurance which will continue to rise for years to come.
 
BTW, I noted that Oreck is offering up to $130 in Gift Certificates to buyers of the XL Ultra.  This is in addition to the other giveaways.  
 
Carmine D.

Quote from Carmine_Difazio on 02/16/07 at 7:46pm:

 
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said he would craft a bill to force State Farm, based in Bloomington Illinois, to continue doing personal and commercial business in the Gulf state.
 
Mr. Hood said he was modeling the proposed legislation, and also an emergency order preventing State Farm or other insurers from canceling policies, on legislation that passed last month in Florida, another hurricane prone sate.
 
The proposed bill and emergency order will have the immediate effect of forcing State Farm to continue to write the same types of policies they ahve written in the past.
 
Carmine D.