Grant to help retrain workers from shuttered plant

An emergency grant can help retrain some of the workers who have been laid off from the XL Four Star Beef plant in Nampa, Idaho. The plant closed two months ago, laying off 522 of employees.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced it would give a $2 million grant to the Idaho Department of Labor so that it could retrain the laid-off workers. The state will use the money to do career counseling, retraining and teach English. The grant will be enough to help about 250 people, reports KTVB News.

In a statement, Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said, "I know that it is difficult to find a job in an area experiencing high unemployment. That's why this federal grant which will support the retraining of Canyon County residents is so important."

"It's devastating for a community our size when an employer of that size is removed," said Canyon County Commission Chairman Dave Ferdinand. "When a company like that goes out of business, most of those workers, if they're in a specific genre, what ends up happening is if there's not that kind of business that's replaced here, then we lose those employees and we lose those productive people out of our communities."

Source: KTVB News

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