Cardone moving more work to Mexico
Cardone is downsizing again. The auto-parts rebuilder, which calls itself Philadelphia's largest remaining manufacturer, will shift 1,336 jobs from its brake caliper plants at 5501 Whitaker Ave. and 5670 Rising Sun Ave. to Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Cardone's warehouses in Brownsville, Texas, over the next two years.
Cardone is downsizing again.
The auto-parts rebuilder, which calls itself Philadelphia's largest remaining manufacturer, will shift 1,336 jobs from its brake caliper plants at 5501 Whitaker Ave. and 5670 Rising Sun Ave. to Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Cardone's warehouses in Brownsville, Texas, over the next two years.
The company, which has been shifting jobs for years from Northeast Philadelphia to the Texas-Mexico border region, told the Pennsylvania Department of Labor last month about the plan for layoffs.
Workers are being let go "at a rate of about 10 to 20 a month this year, and 20 to 30 a month from the later part of 2017 into 2018," before the shutdown, said Kevin Feeley, a spokesman for Cardone Industries Inc.
About 1,000 workers in Cardone's headquarters and electronics division will remain in Philadelphia, down from around 4,000 in the early 2000s.
Feeley said the company was moving the brake work to Mexico because the "entry level" manufacturing work is "particularly sensitive" to cheap foreign competition.
Cardone is working with Philadelphia Community College and local officials to try to find jobs for the workers, Feeley added.
The company has invested $12 million into its local facilities, including its electronics shop, in recent years, and plans "to grow a significant number of high-tech jobs," though fewer than the jobs going away, he said.
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