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Michelin North America is embarking upon a series of production and employee cutbacks to reduce U.S. and Canadian inventory in response to an “unprecedented deterioration in market conditions, particularly in the original equipment markets.”
At its Greenville, S.C. car and light truck tires plant, 45 production contractors are being dismissed this month. Beginning in March and continuing for four weeks, 870 hourly workers will have their schedules reduced by about 10 hours per week.
The company’s factory in Lexington, S.C. will reduce production over the next eight weeks. Available employees from the US5 (Lexington Passenger plant) will be used to fill open positions at US7 (the Lexington Earthmover plant) on the same corporate campus, and 43 contractors are being let go.
In November, Michelin’s car and light truck tire plant in Ardmore, Okla. released 120 contractors; beginning Feb. 13 and continuing for eight weeks, 1,455 hourly employees will have their schedules reduced by 12 hours every two weeks.
At the Spartanburg, S.C. truck tire facility, 32 production contractors and 15 mechanical contractors were dismissed in November and December. Over the next eight weeks, 835 workers will have their schedules reduced to an average of 35 hours per week.
Cutbacks are also ongoing at a Canadian plant in Nova Scotia that supplies truck, small over-the-road and earthmover tires.
“Michelin remains a healthy company on sound financial footing,” says company spokeswoman Lynn Mann. “These recent actions to reduce our costs are helping us weather the crisis. We are continuing to monitor the economic and market situation, which is unpredictable. Further actions may be necessary.”
For more information, visit www.michelin-us.com.
