Posted on 04/01/2009 7:45:57 PM PDT by NellieMae
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Exide Technologies will lay off 567 employees at its Bristol plant — nearly 70 percent of its current work force there — starting May 1.
Company official Bruce Cole said Wednesday the layoffs are “indefinite,” but they “hope for an improvement in the marketplace that may allow us to put people back to work at our Bristol facility.”
Opened in 1994, Exide’s Bristol plant is a manufacturing and distribution center of lead-acid batteries used in the automotive, marine and specialty industries. The plant currently employs 817 people, and the layoffs will affect both hourly and salaried workers.
Employees who wished to remain anonymous said some of the plant’s middle management is among the layoffs, and higher-level managers are moving into the middle managers’ jobs.
Sullivan County Mayor Steve Godsey worked at Exide for nearly a decade and said he’s been concerned about automotive-related jobs in the Tri-Cities area.
“A lot of their market is original equipment business (batteries that go in new cars, for instance) and that lends itself to some tough times right now because new car sales are really stagnant,” Godsey said.
“I’ve got a lot of friends that are employed over there, and I’m hoping they can work through these difficult times. The battery industry has had difficult times before, and we’ve made it through those,” Godsey added.
Cole, who is president of Exide’s Transportation Americas business division, said the layoff decision was a painful one for the corporation but came down to sales volume, which has suffered in the economic slowdown. The restructuring decision was made to adjust capacity to handle current OEM (original equipment manufacturer) volume and also aftermarket battery volumes, which an Exide news release implied have also slowed down.
“The layoffs ... are by no means a reflection of our employees’ efforts or commitment to Exide, and we thank those affected for their service and dedication,” Cole said.
The Bristol plant will begin “reduced daily run rates with fewer employees across remaining shifts” on May 1.
Employees said production will be cut from about 18,000 to 20,000 batteries a day to 6,000 a day.
Richard Venable is the CEO of NETWORKS – Sullivan Partnership, Sullivan County’s main economic development organization. He said more resources for unemployed workers are available now than at some times in the past, and the federal stimulus bill promises even more.
“The Department of Labor will be notified and will probably set up a rapid response team to assist in any transitions for people,” Venable said. “We’ll take it day by day and try to help these folks that have lost their jobs. The community can help those individuals in a lot of ways, and I expect that’s what will happen here.”
Like Godsey, Venable wasn’t shocked at the news from a purely economic standpoint.
“It is a shock from an individual standpoint because of the number of neighbors and friends it affects,” Venable said. “From a business standpoint, you can’t say you’re shocked because the automotive industry as a whole is experiencing a downturn.”
Venable said the Tri-Cities region has been “very resilient” through the recession so far. Sullivan and Washington counties have the state’s fourth- and sixth-lowest unemployment rates, respectively.
“I think educated guesses and experience will tell you we’re going to be affected by this. We’re 17 months into a recession, though, and even though we’ve had some sporadic layoffs our economy has been pretty solid,” Venable said.
Kingsport Times-News staff writers contributed to this report.
Wow, that’s gonna hurt Bristol.
are they gonna stop sponsoring a NASCAR team and save abour $20-25 million a year?
Ouch! My cousin works at that plant. I’ll have to check on him.
Make a point of reminding all those people in your area who voted for Obama that you “Hope this is the Change they voted for.”
I think your comment is unwarranted in this case.
You're not going to find too many Obama supporters in that area...even a weak candidate like McCain beat Obama by 35 to 50% in many East Tennessee counties.
Yes, but we need to generate *hatred* for Obama (and to a lesser extent, the Dems). Intense, burning hatred.
That’s how the lefties won the last two elections. The tactic works, we’d be idiots not to adopt it.
BTTT
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