MUNCIE — For workers at a Muncie battery recycling plant, the next two months may determine whether they keep their jobs.
Exide Technologies has filed for bankruptcy and is trying to sell off all of most of its assets, according to the company. That includes the Muncie facility where about 180 people work. Financial trouble, some of it related to COVID-19, is behind the bankruptcy.
But whether there's a buyer for Exide and if there is, whether that new owner keeps the Muncie plant open, is anyone's guess.
Exide has sent a letter to Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour and filed a "WARN Notice" with the state spelling out what could happen. Something may be known by late-July.
In part, the letter to the mayor reads:
If the company does not enter into an agreement with a purchaser to sell the business, the company currently expects that it will be forced to conduct reductions-in-force or plant closings. Alternatively, if the company does enter into an agreement with a purchaser to sell the business, the purchaser may elect not to continue to operate the business as a going concern or to offer employment to all of the company’s employees.
For now, it's business as usual in Muncie, according to Melissa Floyd, Exide Vice President of Corporate Communications.
What happens in the future remains to be seen.
