The news came suddenly and it came without mercy: in October, the Newell Rubermaid plant in DeWitt, Nebraska , which makes VICE-GRIP wrenches, will close its doors, sending nearly 400 people out the door without jobs.

 

The reason? Newell Rubermaid is calling the closing a “streamlining initiative designed to help the company control costs and remain competitive in the global market.”

 

The closing of the Newell Rubermaid plant is just another sad story in a long line of American plants and factories losing their footing to over-seas competition. What makes the VICE-GRIP facility in south east Nebraska so much different, however, is the fact that an entire town has relied upon that factory and those jobs for the past 70 years.

 

In fact, one wouldn’t be too far off by saying, as goes VICE-GRIPS, so goes DeWitt.

 

The south eastern Nebraska village of 572 was founded in 1872 and, like most prairie towns, saw its fair share of ups and downs. DeWitt was hit especially hard during the dust-bowl years of the Great Depression.

 

The town eventually prevailed, however, thanks to William Petersen, a Danish immigrant who developed the first pair of locking wrenches. The VICE-GRIP was born and the factory soon followed, employing a large number of the town’s residents.

 

At its peak, the plant employed nearly 700 workers. Throughout its years in business, the factory changed hands multiple times but always managed to keep its doors open and employees well-paid—until now.

 

The closing of the DeWitt VICE-GRIP plant isn’t only a blow to the factory’s workers, though; it is a heavy hit and a depressing testament to the future of small-town America .

 

Already faced with dwindling populations and competition from metropolitan areas, villages around Nebraska and throughout the United States are disappearing at an alarming rate, in part, because of corporate America ’s race to the bottom. Whether it be the closing of plants, such as the VICE-GRIP facility, the rising cost of fuel, or grain and meat imports from foreign countries, rural Americans are being forced to put up with demands they simply cannot meet.

 

With the desertion of rural areas, comes the desertion of a unique way of life that is the beauty, simplicity and history of small-town America—including DeWitt, Nebraska .

 

Indeed, the greed and corruption of the Newell Rubermaid Corporation may not just mean the end of the road for DeWitt factories employees—it may be the end of life as DeWitt knows it.