JUST BUSINESS AS USUAL: Ever wonder how many Cleveland jobs have been lost, not because the companies were unprofitable, but because the owners sold out to distant competitors who wanted the assets (brands, customers, patents) but not the actual businesses? Think this might have any relevance to our current civic mythos, in which entrepreneurs and "wealth creation" will save the city?

Crain's Cleveland Business, current issue, page 1:

New owner pulls plug on three lampshade plants

By DAVID BENNETT

Nicole Shades LLC of Cleveland, a maker of specialty lampshades that was acquired during the summer by a Pennsylvania company, will lay off 161 workers when it turns out the lights in November at three city manufacturing sites.

The 34-year-old company, formerly known as Nicole Corp., has notified the state that it will close all three of its Cleveland manufacturing operations, which are on West 110th Street, Superior Avenue and Kelley Avenue. The company makes and imports lampshades under the J. Alexander brand and a private label. The shades are sold at major department stores.

According to a notice the company filed Sept. 9 under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, Nicole will eliminate 125 manufacturing jobs by Nov. 9, as well as 36 administrative and distribution positions.

The decision to close the Cleveland operations was made by officials at Emess Design Group, a lamp manufacturer based in Ellwood City, Pa., that merged in July with accent furniture supplier Stein World Inc. of Memphis, Tenn. Its first move was to buy Nicole Corp. that same month for a price the company did not disclose.

Incidentally, the only reason we (the employees, the City, Crain's) got a 60-day warning about these plants shutting down is a federal plant closing notification law -- the "WARN Act" -- passed in 1988 by Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum over the strenuous opposition of the Reagan Administration, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, the NAM, etc.