A kick on the way out: city pays to settle Tower Automotive lawsuit

Oct. 17, 2005 -- As Tower Automotive packed up its last north side Milwaukee jobs to move them to Ohio, the Common Council approved payment of $50,000 to the firm to settle a lawsuit over an inadvertent shutdown of the firm's water supply.

The company will also receive a $30,344.82 credit on the outstanding balance of its water bill.

Tower is moving its last 300 or so jobs from its Milwaukee site to Ohio. As recently as 1997, 3,500 people worked at the plant at W. Capitol Dr. and N. 35 St.

The water effor occured in 2003, during a street reconstruction project near Tower Automotive.

The Water Department notified Tower that its regular water supply would be turned off and an alternative water would be turned on so that the plant could continue its manufacturing operation,the city attorney's office explained in a letter to the council's Judiciary and Legislation Commitee.

Water Works established a temporary water source from a fire hydrant, but later that same day, a different Water Works crew disconnected it, "apparently under the belief that the Tower Automotive plant was being supplied by other sources," City Attorney Grant Langley and Assistant City Attorney Michael Tobin wrote.

The water shutdown led to the shutdown for one to two hours of  two major manufacturing lines at Tower Automotive, they wrote.

"The laser equipment used to cut steel forms for automobile frames was damaged and manufacturing lines were shut down pending repairs," Langley and Tobin said. "In addition, the remainder of the manufacturing lines were shut down due to the lack of water needed for the assembly process."