Sunday, September 21, 2008

Layoffs in Mattawan


MATTAWAN, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Layoffs announced for Mattawan on Friday by a major automotive parts maker.



Close to 200 employees at the Alcoa company were told Thursday that they're being laid off. The company is a leading producer of aluminum products and components for the auto industry.



Alcoa confirmed on Friday that they are laying off hundreds of workers, at their Mattawan plant, 200 will be facing a temporary layoff of one week, possibly more for some.



The Mattawan plant supplies parts for electrical systems in cars and light trucks. Because of all the upheaval in the auto industry, and demand for light trucks going way down, Alcoa is putting workers on temporary layoff.



Alcoa says that some employees actually did take voluntary layoffs before this announcement, and the company was trying to encourage more employees to take voluntary time off, but as the company looked ahead, it became clear that it wasn't going to be enough.



Mike Belwood, an Alcoa spokesperson, said that "as we get into September we expect to call most people back to work and we will continue to monitor our labor levels because of the type of markets we're in are slow, and we'll continue to work through this as best we can. We do appreciate the cooperation and help we've gotten from our employees in this difficult period.



The Mattawan plant employs over 400 people, so some operations could keep running, although the spokesperson said he wasn't clear on what exactly would be going on at the plant.

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