Crescent-News.com - Editorial

Editorial

Often, when struggling companies and plants make public announcements about their future, the news is depressing. Job cuts and plant closures are the usual bad news associated with companies that are trying to cut costs and remain competitive.

But, happily, there was an alternative ending last week for Con Agra Foods' Archbold plant, at least for now.

During a meeting Wednesday in Archbold, ConAgra announced that its plant there would remain open. This flew in the face of what not long ago was believed to be an eventual plant closure. A year ago, Con Agra officials said the plant would soon close to help the company steamline operations and remain profitable.

That was bad news for the 370 employees who then worked at ConAgra's Archbold plant. But today, the plant's remaining 300 employees are rejoicing, at least for now.

ConAgra officials say the plant will remain open in the "foreseeable future." That's no guarantee that the plant will continue functioning for years to come, but that's a reality that faces all businesses today. Much depends on how efficient the workforces in those plants remain as well as the stability of the markets on which they rely.

Still, this is welcome news for Archbold in particular and northwest Ohio in general. Plant employees who continued working and proved to ConAgra that this plant is still viable deserve a word of praise.

Iran's irritating leader

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reminded the world last week that he remains a first-class clown. But there was nothing funny about his latest stunt.

Ahmadinejad asked New York officials if he could visit the World Trade Center site as part of his visit to the United Nations this week. Officials initially balked, but apparently not for the most obvious reason that Iran is considered a terrorist-sponsoring state that has no diplomatic relations with the United States. The political outcry, however, particularly among the families of 9/11 victims who know firsthand the impacts of terrorism which Iran regularly supports, should be enough to defeat this ridiculous idea.

Ahmadinejad surely understood that this ruse would be rejected, so he had nothing to lose by asking. But this is just another example of an outrageous propaganda stunt by one of the world's rogue leaders who understands how easily some minds can be misled.