last night Donald Trump claimed he
helped keep a Ford factory in America
even though ford says it never had any
intention of moving or closing the plant
but today another all american brand did
shut down a 44 year old factory and
Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania putting more
than 400 people out of work
it's one of the seven facilities
accounting for roughly 26 hundred jobs
the craft has pledged to eliminate since
July 2015 when it was acquired by heinz
Roberto ferdman spoke with Denise Mooney
who is facing unemployment after more
than a decade of steady work on her last
shift at the plant
I guess what say the common words you
hear is corporate greed now whether or
not that is the case but we do hear a
lot about that ever since craft
announced its plan to shut the Lehigh
Valley factory Denise monies wondered
what this night would be like her last
of the plant she's worked at for more
than a decade it's something the last
time going in and it's gonna be sad
the parking lot when I started here this
parking lot was full of employees and
NCOs gone bind as the last couple months
gone by it's gotten smaller and smaller
just a handful of people there so that's
the only thing i can say bittersweet
Denise no she isn't the first person to
lose a factory job in this country since
2000 alone
the United States has shed about five
million manufacturing chops but until
you lose a job yourself
it's hard to anticipate what it will
mean
at the local diner right after her last
shift
denise is suddenly dealing with a
mixture of nostalgia for the past and
uncertainty about her future now that
the end is finally here
how did it go you know i looked at the
clock at 73 I thought well that's it you
know and I did you come down the door
get the past the turn styles everything
you do it was last how long did you work
at craft for I'm list there for 38 years
started when I was 24 and i'll be 63
next
it was this little device instead of
waiting until the very end
Denise's friend and longtime coworker
Esther top decided to leave this summer
she couldn't handle watching the
facility slowly die out when i started
working we had a huge workforce and over
the years jobs got cut because of
automation
do you remember what it was like when
you found out they're closing the
factory is probably the last thing any
of us expected really for eight years
since the processed cheese department
level they kept telling us that we're
working on getting more production lines
when they called us in for the meeting
and told us you could have heard a pin
drop sister Denise isn't political she
doesn't blame obama for Trump or anyone
really for manufacturing jobs going away
she just feels powerless new jobs like
hers were vanishing she just never
expected hers would be one of them
why did you decide to stay until the
very end i just did I had you know
nothing to lose really by state you know
so the longer you stay there was more
incentives they did offers nice
incentives to stay you know and then my
health and benefits were covered
it's really sticker shock when you have
to go from where the company was paying
a good portion of your health care to oh
my god i paid for myself
the future of healthcare is suddenly
more important to Denise than it ever
has been before in September she was
diagnosed with thyroid cancer without a
steady job paying her medical bills has
become a lot more daunting
I'm notice you know we them had some
challenges this year and so on and so
forth so I'm a little concerned you know
but look through it
and I get through the single motherhood
you get through this third shift for 30
years raised them get through it you
know we'll be alright