Evergreen Solar Employee Speaks About Plant Closure
DEVENS (CBS) - An Evergreen Solar employee risked his final weeks of pay by speaking out to WBZ-TV about the company's decision to abruptly shutdown.
Evergreen Solar is closing its Devens plant, even after the state invested millions of dollars to keep the jobs in Massachusetts.
"There was a lot of hope that this was the next big thing if you will, that this was the future," said the worker.
WBZ-TV's Peg Rusconi reports.
He is one of the 800 workers who will lose their jobs in March when the Evergreen Solar panel manufacturing plant in Devens closes.
"Once the news hit, everyone was obviously just devastated by it. We all had thought that we were going to be moving upline, at least had some jobs, or hope for jobs. But now there was absolutely nothing," said the worker.
Now, there's nothing for him or several family members who also work at the plant. He asked for anonymity because he worries speaking out will cost them their jobs before the plant shuts its doors.
Evergreen announced last week it would close the Devens facility by the end of March and move production to China, a letdown on many levels to the worker and others.
"We were especially interested and excited about it because it would help our country and everyone around us get away from other countries and our dependency on them, namely oil. But now we're turning to another country for another reason," said the worker.
"There's just no way to sugar coat that losing 700 manufacturing jobs in central Massachusetts is a big loss for the state," said Greg Bialecki, the Massachusetts Secretary of Housing and Economic Development.
There's also a big loss of money. Bialecki said the state can't recoup everything it handed out.
"If you take the $31 million and you take away the $13 (million) we're going to get back, that's about an $18-million figure for what we invested that we're not going to get back."
The worker worries about getting back on his feet.
"Myself, I've only had a couple years of college and I was hoping working in this field would be kind of a stepping stone in my career. And now, that's kind of been taken out from under me," said the worker.
Evergreen said it's working with the state to determine how much money it will pay back.
Both sides point out the financial hit to the state is offset by other revenues, including income taxes paid by all those workers and more than a million dollars annually in property tax on the building.
