Cinch Connectors Closing Vinita Plant, Laying Off 180 Workers

• Joe Wertz
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  Joe Wertz was a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma from 2011-2019. He reported on energy and environment issues for national NPR audiences and other national outlets. He previously worked as a managing editor, assistant editor and staff reporter at several major Oklahoma newspapers and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Cinch Connectors is shuttering its Vinita manufacturing plant and relocating operations to a Texas town near its Mexican factory.

The plant, which is one of Vinita’s largest employers, will go dark by the end of the year. Layoffs of about 180 workers will start in the next few months, The Oklahoman reports:

“We are sad to see them leave,” J.C. Kinder, Vinita Area Chamber of Commerce executive director tells the paper. “It’s going to hurt us (Vinita) pretty bad because a lot of husbands and wives work at the plant together. It will be very devastating to a lot of families.”

Based in Lombard, Ill., Cinch makes electrical connectors for the aerospace, telecommunications transportation and technology industries. The company also has a factory in England.

About 120 full-time workers and 60 temporary workers are employed at Cinch’s Vinita plant, which opened in 1972, The Oklahoman reports.

Moving operations to McAllen, Texas, near its factory in Reynosa, Mexico will lower costs and reduce lead times for customers, a company rep tells the paper.

The company will create 50 jobs in the McAllen area, according to The Monitor, the McAllen newspaper. In the next four years, Cinch plans to hire an additional 20 employees. Most of the new jobs will pay $12 to $14 hourly, though managers will earn between $40,000 and $75,000 annually, the newspaper reported.