Vise Grips ships its jobs to China!

More Nebraskan and American jobs are going abroad, thanks to so-called free trade. Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan warned us, but most of us didn't vote for them!!

Don't wait until YOU get laid off. Factory workers aren't the only ones, you know. Mutual of Omaha has shipped many of its programming jobs to India. Today when you call an 800 number to speak to a customer service rep, chances are you will get someone in Pakistan speaking in broken English!!!

Now is the time to get your job search résumé up and running. Call Executive Writing Services at 402.399.9853.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- Gary Oden has known for weeks that the plant where he has spent the last 19 years helping build Vise-Grips, one of Nebraska's most famous products, would be shutting down.

But he still wasn't completely prepared for the meeting at 5:30 Wednesday morning.

He and other employees were officially told the bad news, the kind that has stung workers in upper Midwestern states for years but is relatively uncommon in Nebraska: The DeWitt plant is shutting down so operations can be moved to China.

"It's a kick in the head," Oden said from a DeWitt bar where employees gathered to discuss the announcement and "try to forget about it."

Newell Rubbermaid owns the Vise-Grip brand. A plant employee said managers were in meetings Wednesday and not available to comment.

About 300 people work at the plant, which for decades has anchored the southeast Nebraska town of DeWitt, population 572.

Roughly 40 of the employees make Unibit tool parts. According to Oden, managers said Unibit operations are moving to Maine.

The plant closure is sure to rattle more than the town's residents and the plant's workers.

Vise-Grip is an iconic name in Nebraska, one of the most famous products invented or developed in the state, along with Kool-Aid, raisin bran, and the Reuben sandwich.

The locking pliers have been manufactured in DeWitt for more than 80 years. DeWitt blacksmith and Danish immigrant William Petersen got a patent for the device in 1924.

By 1928, the company had more than 600 employees.

When Petersen died in 1962, his family took over. The business was eventually renamed American Tool Cos.

American Tool sold out in 2002 to Newell Rubbermaid, a minority owner since 1985. Since then, the DeWitt plant has operated under the name of Irwin Industrial Tools, a company American Tool bought in 1993.

Oden said employees were told that "to keep the Vise-Grip name competitive, they had to move to China."

Associated Press - October 29, 2008 6:25 AM ET LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - The Vise-Grips plant in DeWitt will officially close this week, ending about 70 years of operations. The last day assembly workers will show up at the plant in the town of 570 people is Friday, but actual production will cease either Wednesday or Thursday. About 330 people work at the plant. Irwin Industrial Tools, which operates the plant, is moving operations to China. A spokesman for the company has said the move is necessary to lower the cost of the locking pliers so they remain competitive with other brands. William Petersen, a Danish immigrant and blacksmith, invented the tool nearly 90 years ago in DeWitt when trying to find a way to clamp down pieces of metal while he worked on them.