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Locked on 06/24/2009 12:36:31 PM PDT by Admin Moderator, reason:
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Posted on 06/24/2009 11:46:04 AM PDT by xtinct
Sales have been hurt by the spread of indoor smoking bans, which have forced people to go outside to smoke.
Tampa will lose part of its cigar heritage in August when Hav-A-Tampa shuts its factory near Seffner and lays off about 495 employees, closing a factory that has been operating since 1902.
The company announced the closing today.
Many employees there make Hav-A-Tampa's iconic Jewels, inexpensive machine-made cigars known for their birchwood tips. Some workers have labored there for two decades or longer, including one who's been there for 50 years, said Richard McKenzie, a senior vice president of human resources for Altadis USA, which owns Hav-A-Tampa.
Altadis tried to keep the plant open by closing it for a week or two at a time and furloughing workers. Eventually, though, the company couldn't cope with a steep drop in consumer demand, brought on by the recession and a large new tax on tobacco products, McKenzie said.
Work that had been done in Tampa will now be performed in an Altadis plant in Puerto Rico, where it has extra manufacturing capacity, McKenzie said. The company is not closing its nearby distribution center off U.S. 301, where it employs about 150 people.
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.tbo.com ...
Still ripped about 700 restaurants and bars which closed their doors when Massachusetts put in the smoking ban.
Do you think our government ever considers that not only are they closing down small businesses but put ALL those workers on the unemployment line?
***...brought on by the recession and a large new tax on tobacco products,***
The power to tax is the power to destroy.
Cigar prices have jumped 30% overnight thanks to BO’s tobacco tax.
They certainly do. The unemployment is not accidental. It puts the workers on the dole so they are dependent on the government. That is the point.
Sorry for the Repubs who lost their jobs.... shadenfreude for the Obama voters who lost their jobs
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278334/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278333/posts
how will perps and teenagers roll their blunts?
What crap. They can't even put the blame where it should go and that's on the the huge tax increases brought about by Obama.
I smoked Hav-A-Tampa Jewels when I was 15.
Hope and Change. :)
A lot more than 500 jobs when you factor in all the ancillary support of 500 people.
Thanks, Obama. (But at least he inhales)
Our Tampa representative to congress, Kathy Castor, originally voted for the house bill but changed her vote when it came back with the Senate’s addition. She received a lot of heat. Recently, our log cabin governor added another dollar to a pack of cigs. He also favored zero’s stimulus(?) package.
Hope and keep the change!
“Do you think the government considers....?” It should read “do you think the government CARES when workers lose their jobs.” In their own minds they are NOBLE, PURE of HEART, GUARDIANS OF PUBLIC HEALTH and all that garbage.
The newest “industries” in this country are those that are dedicated to the destruction of other industries.
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