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Freightliner to lay off about 940 at N.C. manufacturing plant
CLEVELAND, N.C. — Almost 1,000 workers are being laid off from a North Carolina Freightliner truck manufacturing plant in a move the company believes will be temporary until demand increases.
The division of Daimler Trucks North America said Monday the layoffs of about 940 workers will leave about 2,200 employees at its Cleveland heavy-truck plant.
Laid-off workers will receive pay and benefits for nearly two months after the cuts take effect Friday. Federal law requires big employers to provide a two-month notice ahead of mass layoffs.
The company said in May it would add more than 600 jobs and a third production shift at its plant in nearby Mount Holly, which makes Freightliner medium-duty trucks.
The job cuts are because of a "sustained reduction in orders and a diminished build rate and is considered temporary," David Giroux, the company's director of corporate communications and public relations, said in a statement to the Charlotte Observer.
Daimler Trucks is reducing production at the facility by one-third "in anticipation of a softer North American truck market in 2016, which will be somewhat below the very strong market of 2015," Giroux said.
The Cleveland Truck Manufacturing Plant makes heavy-duty Freightliner and Western Star trucks. The location currently employs about 3,100 workers. That will drop to about 2,200 after the "temporary adjustment."
The company declined to comment further on the layoffs.
The Freightliner layoffs come one month after Volvo Trucks announced it was laying off 734 production workers at its plant in southwest Virginia due to a slowdown in demand.
Layoffs at the New River Valley Assembly Plant in Dublin will take place over three weeks starting in early February, company spokesman John Mies said.
Miles added that Volvo was adapting to market changes including a decline in demand for long-haul trucks.
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