United Steel Workers 560 President concerned about potential changes at Doosan Bobcat

(GWINNER) – The local president of the United Steelworkers Local 560 is concerned after talk of Doosan Bobcat could potentially be laying off hundreds of workers at Doosan Bobcat’s manufacturing plants in North Dakota and Minnesota.

“We’re very concerned,” United Steelworkers Local 560 President Cody Parrow said. “It’s in the early stages right now. We were just informed. If this potentially happens, it would be devastating to this town and the surrounding communities.”

More than 1200 employees work in the Gwinner plant, according to Parrow.

He says the company informed employees that Doosan Bobcat was approved to build a facility in Mexico, and they plan to do so, with the plan being to move the M Series line to Mexico by 2025.

"We're coming up with a plan and a strategy to try to just reverse their decision on this," Parrow said.

 Parrow made the comments while appearing on The Jay Thomas Show on WDAY Radio.

In a statement to WDAY/WZFG Radio News on Saturday afternoon, Doosan Bobcat spokeswoman Nadine Erckenbrack said, "As a global company that builds and sells products around the world, we are exploring opportunities to address current workforce challenges and facility constraints and identify ways to support market demand and growth. We are committed to creating and maintaining quality employment opportunities and our recent investments in our facilities throughout our global footprint are proof of that commitment. In fact, we recently announced a number of new facilities and expansions of existing manufacturing operations worldwide. Our goal is to meet growing customer demand and there are no current plans to lower staffing levels at our facilities. In fact, we have grown the number of employees within the majority of our locations and continue to have open positions to fill. At this time, we do not have any updates to share; we will share additional information if available. "