ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
THE CLOSING of Volvo's GM truck plant in Ohio will add to the work load at its Pulaski County plant - and may even create some new jobs for western Virginia.
Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp. officials said Thursday their Orrville, Ohio, truck assembly plant will merge with their New River Valley manufacturing complex.
The move will close the Orrville plant, south of Akron, by April 18. The plant produces 15 trucks daily and employs 473 people, 291 of whom are production workers.
Company spokesman Keith Hoile said no decision has been made on whether the consolidation will add jobs at Volvo GM's plant in Pulaski County.
But if the truck market holds steady, the closing would add at least 15 trucks to the Dublin plant's present 46-truck daily production rate.
Hoile said some of the Ohio plant's hourly and salaried workers will be offered jobs at other sites. He said, however, that if the move creates jobs in Dublin, laid-off union workers here would receive priority over those offered transfers.
"This is part of a company-wide restructuring designed to reduce operations and manufacturing costs," Hoile said.
Volvo GM chose to consolidate at the Pulaski County plant because it has capacity to meet current and future production needs, he said.
The company recently added a cab assembly plant and paint facility in Dublin, giving it a central location for production of its newly launched Volvo VN Series highway tractors.
In August, Volvo GM said it would lay off 140 workers - about 10 percent of its work force - at the Dublin plant by year's end. Including layoffs earlier in the year, the plant has reduced its work force by about 200 employees. The 1,400-employee Dublin plant, which opened in 1975, makes six VN-series trucks per day.
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines KEYWORDS: JOBCHEKby CNB