Workers reflect on GE's role in Morrison

MORRISON – Everett Pannier worked at the now-closed Morrison plant for most of his nearly 50-year career with General Electric.

He had a tough assignment when he was its manager from 1995 to 2007 – downsize the plant.

He worked at the GE factory in Carroll, Iowa, for 3 years before returning to Morrison’s plant in 1995, which then had about 950 employees, including 200 temporary ones.

But Pannier’s marching orders were to cut the workforce, and that he did. By the time of his 2007 departure, the plant employed about 250, he said.

“It wasn’t a lot of fun the last few years,” he said. “I would get calls from corporate to move stuff to this plant or that plant.”

The only positive thing, the 69-year-old Pannier said, was that the company offered a special retirement option for longtime employees. They would get benefits until they turned 65, he said. That wouldn’t make up for their wages entirely, he said, but they could get other jobs to supplement their diminished income.

“At the end, people were flat laid off,” he said.

Pannier was among those attending the General Electric exhibit at the Morrison Heritage Museum on Saturday.

General Electric started operation in Morrison in 1949, making appliance controls for such things as refrigerators and air conditioners. Another company built the factory a couple of years earlier.

In its early years, GE boasted that its Morrison factory was the largest of its kind in the world. Its payroll jumped from $110,000 in 1949 to $4 million in 1953, according to a GE advertisement. In 1953, the company had 1,300 local workers.

Its heyday was in the late 1960s, with 2,600 employees. The workers came from around the area, but the total was equivalent to more than half of Morrison’s population.

The factory was making 300,000 controls a week for refrigerators and air conditioners – sold to every company that made such appliances, Pannier said.

But then the company started moving production to other places, including Malaysia in the 1980s and Mexico in the 1990s.

Stan Mitick, an engineer, started with the plant shortly after it opened in 1949. Although he retired in 1993, he has worked part time for the company until a couple of months ago – a span of more than 60 years.

The 88-year-old has worked with engineers from Malaysia in recent years because he was involved from the very beginning with the controls.

Mitick had requested the Morrison Historical Society do the exhibit. He had collected newspaper clippings and company newsletters over the years, which he donated to the museum.

Harvey Zuidema, the society’s president, agreed to help and put up displays including newspaper clippings and photos. He never worked at GE, nor did his family members. But he said he learned much about the plant through the project.

Bill Rathje, 83, was an engineer at the plant from 1953 to 1996. He saw the workforce slowly dwindle, as the company found places where it could pay people less.

“If it didn’t do that, it would have gone broke,” he said. “It was a good run.”

For years, the company held its annual picnic at the fairgrounds. Photos on display show employees playing games, with bleachers packed. In later years, with the reduced workforce, such gatherings moved to the GE parking lot, workers said.

From 1949 to the 1980s, the company put out a newsletter called The Daily Reporter. It included a sprinkling of national news and local items such as lost-and-found listings.

The plant closed in 2010. Later that year, GE entered agreements with the state and the city because it was believed to have contaminated local groundwater. It promised to solve any problems and monitor the situation.

As part of the settlement, GE gave the city $650,000.

Pannier said the community now must make sure GE takes care of pollution problems at the old plant. But he said that could take a while because the company has closed factories all over where it must deal with similar issues.

“They have to prioritize,” Pannier said.

Pannier, who is with the local economic development group, said companies have made inquires about possibly setting up shop at the old GE factory. But that won’t happen until GE does its cleanup.

“They have to get it ready before someone else takes over,” he said.

So what’s Morrison like without GE around?

“It’s a retirement community of GE people,” Zuidema said.

To go

The exhibit on General Electric's history in Morrison can be seen from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday at Morrison Heritage Museum, 202 E. Lincolnway.

Admission is free.

Call the museum,  815-772-3013, for more information.