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Workers return to the Remington Arms Co. factory in the Herkimer County village of Ilion after a lunch break in January 2013. The president of the labor union that represents 1,180 workers at the plant said Remington's plans to open a factory in Alabama bodes badly for Ilion and blames New York's Safe Act ban on assault weapons.

(AP Photo/Mike Groll, 2013)

Ilion, N.Y. — A union official said Saturday the Remington Arms Co.'s decision to open a manufacturing plant in Alabama does not bode well for Ilion, and he's blaming New York's SAFE Act restrictions on assault weapons.

"It can't be good," said Fran Madore, president of United Mine Workers Local 717, which represents 1,180 of the 1,300 Remington employees in Ilion. "How can it be good?"

Madore said plant officials told him they wanted to meet with him Monday. They did not say what they wanted to talk about, but Madore said he assumes it will be about the company's reported plans to open a 500,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Ala.

AL.com reported Saturday that the Huntsville facility could employ up to 2,000 people. It said details could be revealed on Monday about plans for a Remington facility in a former Chrysler plant near Huntsville International Airport.

Military Times reported that the company's expansion in Alabama would not affect Remington's operations in Ilion. But Madore said he's afraid the company has soured on New York because of the passage of the SAFE Act, which bans assault weapons such as the AR-15 made by Remington.

Madore said he's worried the company will move jobs out of Ilion, the Herkimer County village where the company has been making firearms since 1816.

"The SAFE Act has been a terrible thing from the beginning," he said. "You'd think New York would be doing everything to keep us. Instead, it passes a law that cripples us."

Remington and other firearms makers can still manufacture assault weapons in New York, but they can't sell them inside the state. New York lawmakers, at the urging of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, imposed the restrictions after a man armed with an assault rifle massacred 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012.

Remington has not given any public indications that it is planning to move out of Ilion. In fact, it has spent more than $20 million on new equipment for its factory in Ilion and added 560 jobs at the plant in the past few years.

Contact Rick Moriarty at rmoriarty@syracuse.com or (315) 470-3148. Follow him on Twitter @RickMoriartyCNY and on Facebook at rick.moriarty.92.