LANCASTER – The City of Lancaster and Morton Manufacturing on Friday celebrated the grand opening of Morton’s new 88,000 square foot facility in the Lancaster Business Park. The company will bring a total of 350 jobs to the Antelope Valley, including 220 existing employees as well as an anticipated 130 new positions for local workers, city officials said in a news release.
“In the midst of a recession and ensuing economic challenges, Lancaster and Morton Manufacturing have succeeded in facilitating a partnership which will reap tremendous benefits for both the business and our community,” stated Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris. “Morton now has the room it needs to grow and we are thrilled to be their new home. Their arrival marks only the beginning of a new wave of manufacturing here in Lancaster, as well as an incredible employment opportunity for our local residents.”
Launched in 1967, Morton Manufacturing specializes in the production of nickel-alloy bolts for gas-turbine aircraft engines. The firm, whose client list includes such companies as General Electric, Pratt Whitney and Rolls Royce, began seeking a new location in 2011 when incoming orders began to greatly outstrip the production capacity of their Santa Clarita facility. With approximately 40 percent of its existing workforce already residing in the Antelope Valley, Morton Manufacturing’s search for a new site led them to Lancaster.
“We greatly appreciate the business-friendly environment and consideration shown to us by all staff members at City Hall. It is a pleasure working with a city so dedicated to making all-encompassing transitions such as ours easy. We are excited to now be member of the City of Lancaster business community,” stated Yolanda Morton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Morton Manufacturing.
The type of base manufacturing jobs Morton Manufacturing provides are highly sought after by local municipalities. Considered “wealth inducing,” these positions create new wealth in an economy. In fact, according to the Manufacturing Institute, every dollar generated by the sale of a manufactured product supports $1.40 in output from other sectors. This is much more beneficial than money simply trading hands, as occurs in the retail and service sectors.
“These new jobs will go a long way toward stimulating our local economy,” stated Lancaster Vice Mayor Marvin Crist. “Manufacturing jobs induce service jobs at an estimated 3 to 1 ratio. As such, Morton Manufacturing’s move should not only bring 350 manufacturing jobs to Lancaster, but also result in a significant number of additional service sector jobs. In all, this move should result in a total local economic impact of up to 1,200 jobs.”
Morton Manufacturing’s new 10.06-acre parcel is located in the Lancaster Business Park at 201 East Avenue K-15.
Those interested in employment opportunities with Morton Manufacturing may call 661-298-0895.
(Information via press release from the city of Lancaster.)
Previous related stories:
Morton breaks ground on new Lancaster facility
Manufacturing firm to bring 300 jobs to the AV
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Bree says
I Love it!!! you ppl are funny…. Anyway Jobs ppl, jobs….
William says
@Bree
Will Morton make up for the jobs LOST recently?
Why try says
No, your right William, it wont make up the jobs we recently lost. O’well, lets send them back to Santa Clarita. There is no point in trying.
Resident Cynic says
Morton is moving. These aren’t new jobs. They are moved jobs. Rex, Marv, Ron, Sandra, and ken voted to a
Spend $2 million for this move of 200 jobs. Then Rex goes and sues Starwood and they leave taking 200 jobs. His cronies stay silent. Does Morton know what they are getting into? Will they be sued for labor law “violations”? Now Rex is trying to bring a company that pay engineers $14 to $16 an hour. And they come from China! This is job growth? RIP Bank of America, Deluxe. We deserve better.
AV Folk says
What is the big deal if the jobs are moved here vs hired here? The workers support thelocal economy and future hires will probably be local. I like hearing stories like this.
Resident Cynic says
Most of these workers already live here. So I’m glad they won’t have to drive to Santa Clarita anymore. But let’s be serious, it isn’t really job growth. It’s job transfer. We need job growth desperately. It looked like BYD was going to do it, but they’re about to lose their contract with Long Beach and who know what else. No matter what we still have the stigma of Paris and his threats of lawsuits. Why any business would want to come to where they have someone like him around is hard to comprehend.
William says
@Resident Cynic
Everything Rex touches turns into a ‘clustermess’.
Has he ever been involved in any deal or project that wasn’t tainted somehow?
They are all a little fishy upon a closer look. He really knows how to work the legal system to his own advantage even if it doesn’t benefit Lancaster. See Starwoods ’bout that.
Now he wants AVTA ad hoc commitees to not have to be open to the public. Now, why would he want that during discussions about the AVTA buying BYD buses. It’s just one thing after another.
Vote for Jonathan Ervin and anyone else but Crist or Smith. Time for a big change before Rex does more damage.
Or not.
William says
@Why try
It’s the conservative way of doing business. Want to know why the unemployment is still high nationally? Sure you do.
Red states, acting like China or Mexico, lure away companies from blue states with fewer regulations, lower wages, right-to-work laws, lower standards of living, disproportional aid from the federal government and so on, for NO NET GAIN IN JOBS.
Starwoods moved from Lancaster to Kansas. Did they increase the number of jobs. Meanwhile, Kansas gets to say they increased jobs just like Lancaster did when Starwoods moved there and what they’ve done with Morton moving from Santa Clarita.
I wonder how long Morton will stay in Lancaster. We should takes bets. When companies aren’t outsourcing, they just move to the red states in a downward spiral. The future looks so bright.
Does the phrase ‘re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’ sound familiar? There’s a reason that phrase has lasted 100 years. It applies to what’s happening in this country all the time.
Travis Brown says
Hello Morton-Manufacturing: I called the number above, and the person told me,(when I see the building being filled,come in and apply, hopefully it will happen in 2014). I just graduated from Virginia Tech, moved here and staying with my uncle. I have a BS degree in Industrial Design. I just want to Work, good thing I read through all the material, that I could REPLY, maybe this will help apply.
thanks, Travis Brown 240-463-0591
utoh says
lol make sure perris that it isnt 1.50 and hour or better yet just stand there and pass out ebt cards lol or wait why dont you just tell them go to walmart and get what they need for free lol
Michael Rives says
Only in Lancaster would the entire city council, minus Ron Smith (didn’t see him in any pic), dedicate an empty building. Quite appropriate. Remember Build Your Dreams (BYD)? They were charged with violating labor laws. What is next? Are they planning to turn Fox Field into a launch pad for rockets to the moon?
frank rizzo says
More negative comments from the AV’s finest. God forbid if you people could find something positive out of a company moving to Lancaster. I would move my business to Lancaster if I could save money and widen my profits. Don’t forget to go eat at your favorite chain restaurant’s at the AV mall. I love eating previously frozen food.
Son of the Anti Rex says
i’m with you frank rizzo. i too would move my business to someplace that would give me $2 million in taxpayer dollars. i love corporate welfare as much as the next guy. i also hate eating a the av mall. i like to eat at what mayor paris calls the bad restaurants on the blvd. there i can give my extras to the panhandlers who are more numerous than customers half the time. i never can give my extras to the panhandlers at the av mall because they are all on the blvd.
William says
Really, Frank Rizzo? Really? Is that why BeX and Marie Callender’s had ‘B’ grades from the health department a while back? I wonder how many other Lancaster restaurants have ‘B’ or lower grades. It seems to go with the territory.
Bon Appetit.
john Howard says
William,
You are a troll and you lie to make others look bad. What you are doing here is defamation and should not be tolerated.
Are you aware that the LA County health department has an online record of current and past Letter grades for restaurants?
http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/rating/
Everyone is welcome to take a look and see that neither of those two businesses have had a B grade in the last 2 years of inspections and both of them currently have an A rating.
William says
John Howard. Can’t you read? I said they had ‘B’ grades a while back’, Bex about a year or so after opening. Sheesh. I could understand a small, hole in the wall diner but a brand new restaurant that is the anchor for the BLVD having a ‘B’ grade doesn’t look good.
I haven’t been back to either one since I saw the signs as they don’t say what the issue was. A friend told me recently that there was ‘blank’ all over the place in the men’s room at BeX. Yuck. You eat there if you want.
I didn’t make up that they had ‘B’ grades. It was the truth but you apparently ‘can’t handle the truth’ so you don’t want it tolerated here. It says a lot about you.
Monica says
It seems like the only thing you are capable of is negativity!
How childish/negative do you have to be to get on this website and knock everything positive that goes on in a neighboring city?
You must an absolute “ray of sunshine” to live with!
Son of the Anti Rex says
william, don’t let john howard get to you. he is quick to try to label you as a troll and call you a liar for defamation when you are not a troll and you did not lie. bex had a b mark and that is a fact. john howard wants to hide the truth for some reason and he want to silence critics like you. this is not a lancaster city council meeting. this is a free speech forum where your constitutional rights are welcome. you even have the right to say there are good restaurants in lancaster even though the mayor doesn’t think so.
William says
Son of the Anti Rex. Actually, John Howard is one of my favorites because it’s so easy to take apart his comments just as you did.
He just serves them up to be destroyed.
Joey Goebz says
You gotta hand it to Rex. After getting a lot of bad publicity recently over his loyalty to the racist-homophobe-anti-Semetic Stan Muhammad, and after getting caught with his pants down over selling American citizenship to his Chinese friends through his sneaky birth tourism scam, and after the Los Angeles Times ran an article which used the words “eccentric” and “crazy” in reference to him, Rex does his usual defection routine to manipulate the media once again. This time he throws a “grand opening” party for a business he helped steal from Santa Clarita that isn’t even scheduled to open for a year. A “grand opening” now for a business that hasn’t passed inspection, and that Lancaster coughed up over $2 million for, and that won’t open for a year? What’s even funnier is that Morton makes parts for companies like GE, Pratt Whitney and Rolls Royce, all of who make products which run on fossil fuels. Rex HATES fossil fuels! He travels around the world touting his solar and net zero BS out of one side of his mouth, but out of the other, he is paying a company lots of money to build parts for fossil fuel products in his town. Then he puts on his bucket list that he wants to stop the fossil fuel power plant in Palmdale. Can someone say hypocrite? Money can’t buy you love but it sure can make a lot of people look the other way.
William says
It’s all good. Land is cheaper in Lancaster for a manufacturing plant and the workers will shop and dine in Palmdale and if they make a good income will probably live in Palmdale or Quartz Hill.
joe swhartz says
Most of the employees already live in the AV
William says
So, I guess not many NEW jobs are being created by the move.
john Howard says
“..anticipated 130 new positions for local workers..”
See by definition you are a troll.
New means new.
The facility is bigger and production will be increased which will require more people to be hired..
New means new.
Maybe they will even hire you so you can get off your but and stop posting lies and B.S. online.
Technology says
Fossil fuels indeed, but recent advances have also shown us algae based fuels in the aeronautics field.
I would not exactly call it stealing the business away, if they needed the room the price is much less up here than trying to expand down there. That is a business no brainer. Add in the fact that so many of their workers live here anyway I would think you would be happy they will be using less fossil fuels to get to work, reduce the traffic on the 14 allowing others speedier travel (by milliseconds) reducing their consumption of fossil fuels, and making for happier workers that are less grumpy because the drive home is much shorter.
AV Folk says
Jobs are jobs and enough stories like this might make me like Rex.
Son of the Anti Rex says
you are right technology. it is not stealing business. it is good business on the part of morton. what business would say no to over $2 million in taxpayer money handed to them? you are also right about the shorter drive times for their employees. just like there would be shorter drive times for the construction workers on the power plant and shorter drive times for the employees. if we could get more jobs in the av that would help reduce traffic which is a major source of air pollution.
you are also right av folk. more stories like this might make me like rex. stories like this and if he would stop saying he is building a christian community and concentrate on building a community that includes christians and everyone one. or if he didn’t ram the walmart down the throats of quartz hill people and lie and say he had to do it. or if he treated people with respect when they spoke at the city council meetings. or if he didn’t sue santa clarita and palmdale for voting districts. or if he didn’t waste taxpayer money on the eye in the sky. or if he didn’t support someone like stan muhammad. or if he didn’t participate in so much incestuous appointments like his deputy mayor and new planning commissioner. or if he didn’t try to push birth tourism at the av hospital. or if he didn’t fight with people like david abber. or if he didn’t try to make up excuses when his wife tried to get on a plane with a loaded weapon. or if he didn’t try to bring a toxic battery plant to the city. or if he didn’t associate himself with sleazy ambulance chasers. or if he didn’t call other mayors silly names. or if he didn’t treat the cedar street theater people so badly. or if he didn’t get the city involved in so many lawsuits because of his yapper. or if he wouldn’t harrass people like david grajeda. or if he would do a better job of stopping the dirt and valley fever from spreading from his solar project.
William says
Yes, Son of Anti Rex, but on the plus side……………………………………………..
I’m sorry. I can’t think of anything on the plus side concerning Rex Parris. How does he do it so completely and consistently?
He really is a big, rotting fish in a small pond.
bird says
Turning a blind eye runs rampant! It’s easier than exposing the truth.
EDWARD MEDRANO says
I am interested in working for your company ,I am currently unemployed ,I was employed at EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE for three years doing housing maintenance /grounds maintenance ,i have been unemployed for a little over a week and i am ready for a new experience ,my job is my priority ,always on time ready to work and loyal to the company that gives me a chance to succeed ,my number is 661-236-7383 please contact or my e-mail address, thank you i hope we can work together and make great things happen .
Otto says
I think you just failed your entrance exam.
edward says
ya I just noticed that hahahaha too late but hey
Otto says
Hey, give ’em a call….it’s worth a try!
SH says
Those interested in employment opportunities with Morton Manufacturing may call 661-298-0895.