The Stories Project: Oregon Livelihoods Traded Away

Cassie Simms Residence: Hermiston, OR Age: 59 Occupation: former JR Simplot potato processing plant Affiliations: none given

Snapshots "I'm hoping that when this is said and done I'll be able to find a job that does carry benefits because not many places do offer benefits for people. Will I get to have a job when I get done here? Are they going to hire me at 59 years old versus some young gal who just got out of college? I don't know what will I be faced with at the end of this schooling [job retraining]." "I can&'t imagine closing a plant of 650 employees not having an impact on a community. I can&'t picture that. I can drive around and see practically on every block one to two houses empty. " "The thing that I really did not like to hear was that they were moving their sales up to the Canadian plant and they were working for less wages, hiring less people because of the robotics. And then hear that they don&'t have the quality that the customers want. "

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