LAIC Offers Help to Artic Cat Workers

Posted on Friday, December 28, 2007

The plan for an incentive program to help displaced employees of Artic Cat in Madison has been finalized. The City of Madison, Heartland, and the Lake Area Improvement Corporation, are collaborating in the effort. The group will pay one thousand dollars to qualifying business or industries located within the Madison City limits that hire a dislocated full time Artic Cat employee in good standing when the company initiated their first lay-off effective November 26th. Applications for the hiring incentive can be made through the Lake Area Improvement Corporation. The positions must be full time, paying at lest ten dollars per hour.

Of that thousand dollars, 500 will be paid at the time of the hire. The remaining 500 will be paid at the end of a one-hundred-twenty day probationary period. The program will be honored as long as the new employee began his or her employment prior to May 1st 2008.

On September 26th Artic Cat announced the snowmobile and ATV manufacturing plant in Madison would be closed, and the positions consolidated with Artic Cats Thief River Falls location. The first round of lay offs took place in November, with the second round on December 15th. Sixty seven employees have been let go in the first two rounds, twenty two remain employed.

A third round of lay offs will occur on Friday January 18th of 2008. A final shut down date has been sent for February 7th of 2008.

Of the ninety-five employees who worked at Artic Cat when the closing was announced in September, two are said to be considering a potential move to Thief River Falls.