WorkOne Northeast has made available $700,000 in federal money for Navistar International Corp. employees who secure other jobs that require on-the-job training, Mayor Tom Henry and WorkOne CEO Kathleen Randolph said Thursday.
The move is part of an ever-growing effort by WorkOne and the city to retain more than 1,000 Navistar employees should the company follow through on its plans to phase down the Fort Wayne facility over the next two or three years and move operations elsewhere.
The $700,000 comes from federal stimulus and Workforce Investment Act funds. It will pay 50 percent of an employee’s wage while the employee goes through on-the-job training, Randolph said.
WorkOne also plans to work with Navistar employees to file a petition with the U.S. Department of Labor seeking Trade Adjustment Assistance certification, which would provide millions more in federal training money if it is determined the Navistar phase-down is the result of global trade or competition, Randolph said.
Randolph said she did not know when WorkOne would file the petition. She said WorkOne still needs to obtain more information from Navistar officials, but she believes there’s a good chance the petition will be approved.
“We’re pretty confident that (the Navistar plan) is due to the impact of global competition and trade,” she said.
In late August, WorkOne announced that it had launched a customized recruitment and training website that targets Navistar engineers. Included in that effort is a $100,000 training scholarship program that allows engineers to enhance their skills.
Randolph declined to say how many Navistar engineers had utilized the website.
“While we are still determined to show Navistar that Fort Wayne is a place where the company can build for the future, we are more determined than ever to retain Navistar’s highly skilled employees,” Henry said. “It is our mission to show them (the employees) that there are opportunities for them right here should they choose to stay.”
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