Lawmakers protest Honda’s policy of hiring from only some Indiana counties

INDIANAPOLIS – The geographic limits Honda Motor Corp. placed on hiring for some 2,000 jobs at its new Greensburg, Ind., factory are facing criticism from state lawmakers who represent areas excluded from the applicant pool.\nFive Democratic legislators have sent a letter to the Indiana Economic Development Corp. saying they disapprove of using state incentives to attract a company that limits its hiring to only a portion of Indiana.\nHonda announced this summer it would look for workers who live within a 20-county area around the southeastern Indiana factory. That area ranges from Marion and Henry counties in central Indiana south to Switzerland and Jefferson counties near Cincinnati.\nThe hiring limits exclude Madison and Delaware counties, which include the cities of Anderson and Muncie – the site of many auto industry plant closings in recent years.\n“We’ve just got literally hundreds of good auto workers here that are out of work and would have been more than happy to at least put their application in over there,” said Rep. Dennis Tyler, a Muncie Democrat who was among those signing the letter.\nThe lawmakers requested a meeting with Indiana Economic Development Corp. CEO Nathan Feltman to discuss the practice of “granting state incentives to companies that selectively exclude certain Hoosiers from even applying for employment.”\nA spokesman for the corporation, Mitch Frazier, said it had received the letter and plans to respond to the legislators.