Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 17, 1995 TAG: 9506190011
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Corning Inc. said Friday that it will lay off about 50 temporary employees and halt a $25 million expansion of its plant as the company deals with a downturn in auto sales.
Doug Mann, president of the Corning plant in Christiansburg, said the layoffs are of nonunion employees hired through Manpower Temporary Services. They will take place in mid-July. The remainder of Corning's approximately 245 permanent employees are not expected to be affected, Mann said.
Corning is in the process of adding a fourth production line to make ceramic filters used in automotive catalytic converters. It will stop that work until market conditions become more favorable, he said.
"We try to anticipate the demand," Mann said. "We see softening auto sales in the next several years."
However, Mann said that doesn't mean the expansion necessarily will be put off for several years. Conditions in the market could change; more orders could be placed. Whenever that turn comes, Mann said, the plant will be able to begin operating the additional production line within eight months.
In November, when Corning announced the expansion plans, the company said it projected a 43 percent increase over the next six years in worldwide demand for the ceramic substrates. It was the company's second planned expansion in less than two years. In 1994, it finished a $12 million expansion that included extending rail lines to the plant and added 30 new jobs.
"If you'd asked me five or six months ago if I'd thought we'd be in this situation, I wouldn't have said it," Mann said.
Corning operates two similar plants in Germany and New York. Those plants also will have layoffs, although the affected workers will be permanent employees, Mann said.
The plant in Christiansburg is the only one of the three that uses temporary employees, who perform less technical, more menial tasks than their permanent, higher-paid counterparts. The last time it had layoffs was in 1991, although only a handful of employees were involved, Mann said.
by CNB