The Trenton Times published the following article on March 9, 2013. To read the full article, click here.

Trenton’s largest private employer may be forced to lay off nearly 200 employees

By Bridget Clerkin/The Times of Trenton 
on March 09, 2013 at 10:07 AM, updated March 09, 2013 at 10:15 AM

TRENTON — Hutchinson Industries, the city’s largest private employer, may lose up to $10 million in expected revenue and have to lay off nearly 200 employees if it can not re-establish a lucrative relationship with the Taiwanese government, state Sen. Shirley Turner said yesterday.

Hutchinson, a rubber manufacturer specializing in the production of tires for military vehicles, was recently passed over for a contract to build tires for the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense, Turner said. Without the contract, the company, which operates three plants in Trenton, may have to shed nearly half of its 450 employees, said Turner (D-Lawrence).

“Hutchinson had been working with Taiwan for 10 years,” Turner said. “They thought they had a good relationship, but when the time came to renew their contract, they were left out of the loop.”

According to Turner, officials at Taiwan’s defense ministry said Hutchinson had been notified that the tire contract was going out to bid, while Hutchinson representatives said they were never told. The contract was awarded to a different company, Turner said.

A Hutchinson spokesman declined to comment yesterday.

In an effort to salvage Hutchinson’s work for Taiwan, Turner joined a delegation of New Jersey elected officials who are leaving today for a trip the Asian country. The nine officials will spend a week there working to strengthen business ties between Taiwan and New Jersey.

The trip is sponsored by the Taiwan’s office of economic and social affairs and organized by Taiwanese ambassadors in New York as well as Jean Chang, the international trade specialist for the New Jersey Department of the State, Turner said.

The politicians will visit a number of corporations, business centers, the Bureau of Financial Trade, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and the American Institute in Taiwan, she said.

As the sole representative from the Central Jersey area, Turner said she will focus on improving Hutchinson’s situation.

“What we want to bring to the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense is the point that Hutchinson has been working with them in good faith for 10 years,” Turner said. “The Taiwanese government knows Hutchinson’s product, and they are very satisfied with Hutchinson’s product, but they gave the contract to someone else.”

“We’re more or less (Hutchinson’s) ambassadors at this point, trying to get them opportunities,” she said. “I’m hopeful that we can establish channels of communication so they won’t have a total loss in terms of the good will and the work they’ve done.”

Complicating the matter for the Trenton manufacturer is the nearly $30 million the company spends annually on purchasing raw materials from Taiwan, Turner said. She said Hutchinson’s expenditures had been made with the understanding that the materials would be used, in turn, to create products the company would sell back to the Taiwanese government.

“What we’re trying to point out is that a trade has to be a two-way street,” Turner said. “We continue to hear about free trade, but we want fair trade.”

That message is especially important because of the number of business ties the Taiwanese government has in New Jersey, she said. The country has large contracts with 62 companies across the state, including five in Mercer County, Turner said.

New Jersey imported nearly $1.6 billion worth of products from Taiwan last year, while exporting only around $536 million worth of goods to the country, according to a report compiled for Turner by the Secretary of State’s office.

“It’s no wonder when you pick up so many things, they all say ‘Made in Taiwan,’” Turner said.

She said she would like to see more “Made in Trenton” labels instead.

“I’m very excited about representing my district, and particularly the capital city,” Turner said. “I’m trying to save some jobs and also trying to help a local industry stay here in New Jersey, because in Trenton, we’ve already lost so many companies and so many jobs.”

“We all know that the biggest employer that we have in Trenton is the state of New Jersey, and they’re not really pulling their weight in terms of helping the capital city,” she said. “We need to hold on to as many private sector jobs as we can.”

“Hutchinson has restored three of the abandoned buildings we had in the city and turned them into manufacturing operations, and we need more of that,” Turner said. “We need more people like that, who will be bringing jobs and paying taxes to the city, because the state certainly isn’t doing that. They pay no taxes and they should be evicted, really.”