ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 5, 1996 TAG: 9601050040
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
The national decline in truck orders has prompted a Salem company to lay off 34 of its 128 employees, effective today.
MascoTech Body Systems & Assembly blamed the furloughs on a cutback in production by its only customer, Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp. That company's Dublin assembly plant in the past two months has slowed its assembly lines, from more than 80 vehicles a day to 56, MascoTech plant manager Joe Handerhan said Thursday.
Volvo GM itself has announced plans to lay off at least 200 Dublin employees starting Jan. 12.
Volvo GM, based in Greensboro, N.C., has called the downturn temporary - part of the cyclical ups and downs of its industry - but neither Volvo nor MascoTech has said when workers might be recalled.
MascoTech, based in Taylor, Mich., opened the Salem plant just 15 months ago. The terminated workers all were hired in the past six months. Handerhan said the company will help them file unemployment claims and will rehire them, if possible, but will not provide severance pay.
Volvo relies on MascoTech to. The two plants work hand-in-hand to such a degree that, when Volvo's lines slow, those at MascoTech must also.
``When a truck is coming down the line, their on-line computer tells ours, `Okay, this truck is going into production. We're going to need this axle system and this engine to arrive at this point in time,''' said MascoTech spokesman Kurt Ruecke.
MascoTech's production crews realize this, plant manager Handerhan said. When Volvo decided to build just 56 trucks per day, he said, the workers "knew they can't just stand around."
About a month ago, MascoTech fired about 12 of 85 workers at an identical plant in Shelby, Ohio, that supplies parts to a Volvo truck plant in Orrville, Ohio, Handerhan said.
Announcing the Salem layoff was a painful step, he said.
"It's something we don't want to do and don't like to do," Handerhan said, ``but hopefully it won't affect them that long.''
The fortunes of Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp. also affect another local company, A.O. Smith Corp. of Milwaukee, Wis., which is building a Botetourt County factory to supply the Dublin Volvo plant and other manufacturers with truck structural beams.
A.O. Smith spokesman Edward O'Connor said Thursday the company is sticking to plans for a $24 million factory in Vista Corporate Park on U.S. 11. The company still expects to employ 65 people when it opens by October.
LENGTH: Medium: 52 linesby CNB