and a former FTI manager, the management did not think that Ordahl was a good candidate to operate the new machines because he did not have two hands. Eventually, shortly before he was terminated, management offered Ordahl part time computer related training.[2]
In 2000, FTI was sold to new owners who instituted a number of cost-cutting measures including extensive layoffs, closure of the Plymouth facility that Ordahl worked at, and outsourcing of various kinds of work. According to FTI, Ordahl's department, the machining department, had three product lines. With the close of the Plymouth facility, two of the product lines, cleaning and ultrasonic, were either outsourced or eliminated, and the relevant employees terminated. The remaining line, plastic welding, moved to a new facility in Cokato.
FTI terminated Ordahl's employment onand, indeed, his entire department by May 31, 2002. FTI asserts that Ordahl could not have been employed by FTI after that date and therefore is not, as a matter of law, entitled to back pay following that date or to any front pay. Ordahl responds that as of August 15, 2002, FTI still had thirteen employees in the machining, tooling, and ultrasonic areas, albeit in Cokato.[6] Ordahl testified that he was capable of working in any of those areas. In light of Ordahl's more than twenty-year history at FTI, and the evidence that some jobs apparently fitting Ordahl's skills were transferred to Cokato but not eliminated, the Court cannot find as a matter of law that had Ordahl remained employed by FTI he would not have been