Newell Rubbermaid, the owner of the historic Vise-Grip brand and its plant in DeWitt, will tell the remaining 300-plus employees next week the plant is closing at the end of October, sources told the Journal Star.

The production will be transferred, at least in part, to China.

And with it will go a piece of Nebraska’s 20th century industrial legacy — and a big part of the village of DeWitt’s livelihood and history.

If true, the closing is bound to be devastating for the Saline County village of 572, and for its region. DeWitt is about 16 miles northwest of Beatrice.

The Journal Star learned of the closing from an employee and a Nebraska civic leader. Both asked not be identified for fear of retaliation against plant employees.

Others plant workers told the Beatrice Daily Sun newspaper they have signed agreements not to disclose company information or risk being fired.

Employees were expecting a meeting this week to announce news at the plant, an employee told the Journal Star, but it was postponed until Wednesday.

Village Board Chairman Randy Badman said the village has not been officially informed of anything. But he acknowledged the rumors and the common knowledge that employees expect an announcement next week.

The state of Nebraska’s Workforce Development reaction team is expected to be at the plant next week to help people losing their jobs, the employee said.

But Terry Johnston, director of administrative services, for the state’s Workforce Development agency, said she had no indication the state’s team was alerted to the closing.

“I haven’t seen anything in that regard,” she said.

Under federal law,  in most circumstances, companies are required to give the state and employees 60 days notice of a plant closing. The meeting Wednesday would be just short of 60 days to the end of October.

Company spokesman Ira Gleser refused to comment on what he called speculation and rumor about the plant. He would not confirm or deny plans for an employee meeting next week.

Public discussion of the plant’s future intensified after Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Kleeb visited July 8 and talked to employees about the uncertainty they faced, said his campaign director, Joe Zepecki.

In a press release after he visited the plant, Kleeb said: “The rumor on the shop floor is that, despite increased productivity and nearly a century’s worth of community ties, this facility may soon be closed and production shipped overseas.”

Kleeb brought up the uncertainty of the plant’s future in a recent debate with Republican candidate Mike Johanns, according to a transcript provided by Zapecki.

Vise-Grip has a celebrated history in DeWitt and Nebraska.

Danish immigrant Bill Petersen developed his first pair of locking pliers in 1915, according to popular histories. He patented the device in 1924 and began production at his blacksmith shop in DeWitt.

By 1928, the company had more than 600 employees.

When Petersen died in 1962, his family took over.

Peterson’s daughter, Harriet Fort, still lives in DeWitt. A son, Richard, died in 2006.

In 1985, Richard’s son, Allen Petersen, bought his family’s interests and the business was renamed American Tool Companies. Allen Petersen died in November in Chicago.

American Tool sold out in 2002 to Newell Rubbermaid, a minority owner since 1985. Since then, the DeWitt plant has operated under the name of Irwin Industrial Tools, a company American Tool bought in 1993.

Not quite a century after the tool rose in popularity among professional and amateur mechanics, things started fading, Journal Star archives show.

In 2003, the company closed divisions in Beatrice, idling 200 people there.

American Tools called that closing a “streamlining initiative designed to help the company control costs and remain competitive in global markets.”

The DeWitt plant still employed 500 people then.

In 2005, the future of the plant and the jobs of more than 400 people who still worked there appeared uncertain after Newell Rubbermaid announced a plan to lay off 5,000 of 31,000 employees worldwide and to close one-third of its 80 factories.

A market analyst who followed the company then, Eric Bosshard, said the DeWitt operation was too valuable to close.

“Do you have a Vise-Grip? They’re not going to get rid of Vise-Grip,” said Bosshard at the time.

“That’s one of their growth businesses. They love the tool business.”

In March 2007, the company announced it would continue to assemble and package Vise-Grips at DeWitt, but it would outsource manufacturing of the components. That cost more jobs.

Vise-Grip is one part of one brand, Irwin, that is among six tool brands produced by Newell Rubbermaid, more well known for its food containers.

On its financial reports, the tools and hardware division shows a slight decline in sales so far this year, and a slight gain in operating income, before restructuring charges are allocated.

As early as 2005, the stock analyst Bosshard recognized circumstances didn’t assure the Vise-Grip factory’s continued operation in the place it is now.

“One could ask if they’ll continue to make Vise-Grips in DeWitt, Nebraska,” Bosshard said then.

Not for long, as it turns out.

Reach Richard Piersol at 473-7241 or at dpiersol@journalstar.com. Joelyn Hansen of the Beatrice Daily Sun contributed to this story.