Miken Sports, who makes baseball helmets and bats for Major League Baseball, will be closing their factory in Caledonia, Minnesota. The factory closing will eliminate 80 jobs over the next 18 to 24 months, and the MLB will move the jobs lost to Missouri and China.
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Certain state congressional members have complained about the MLB sending jobs for America's pastime to Communist China, the Star Tribune reported.
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U.S. Sen. Tina Smith from Minnesota sent a letter to the MLB and the California-based private equity firm which owns Miken sharing her outrage that the jobs would be sent overseas.
"This type of transaction, in which wealthy private equity investors buy longstanding U.S. companies only to shut down American plants and move jobs overseas, has left countless Midwest communities devastated while wealthy private equity investors ... reap a larger and larger share of our country's income and wealth," Smith wrote, the Tribune reported.
Residents from the area shared Smith's outrage.
"It's really devastating and frustrating. People are angry," DeWayne Schroeder, the mayor of Caledonia, said.
Schroeder claims that the company never spoke of its plans with the city, which leaked a month ago, the Tribune reported.
"It was quite a surprise," he said. "We just heard it on the street. There was nothing official sent to the city. Word of mouth got out, and then we contacted them and found out what was going on."
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A spokesperson for the MLB said the decision was made by Rawlings Sporting Goods independently. Rawlings, a St. Louis-based company, is another owner of the factory and made their decision without input from organized baseball.
The MLB owns a small minority interest, less than 20%, in Rawlings, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also said that the batting helmets would continue to be made in the U.S., with the vast majority of Caledonia jobs being shifted to Missouri and fewer than 10 going to China.
Before the pandemic, Miken employed 150 people and was in Caledonia since 1999. Following the pandemic, it cut down its workforce in half. Workers who stay till the shutdown is complete will be offered a $2-an-hour raise.
Others hope that the company may change its mind and stay in the town.
"This is a gut punch," said state Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston. "I can't get my arms around the fact that America's pastime is moving jobs to Communist China."
Davids sees himself as "the eternal optimist," urging other officials to pressure the company to stay on a recent teleconference call.
"What's the show, 'Jerry Maguire'? Follow the money? That's what this is about," he said.
If the factory closes, Mike expects it will save $4 million to $10 million, something Smith and others think is tiny compared to the resources of its owners.
Smith has gone as far as to threaten legislation that would strip the MLB of funding that it received throughout the pandemic.
"They should be staying there because it's the right thing to do," she said.