Volvo Trucks North America Lays Off 650 workers in Virginia

Companies with Virginia operations have announced that there would be jobs cut in the state. The cuts will include 650 hourly workers at Volvo Trucks North America in Southwest Virginia, 120 hourly jobs at a roller bearing manufacturer in Petersburg, 70 positions at a cabinet maker in Culpeper and 18 Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. jobs in Radford.

Volvo Trucks North America said yesterday that the cuts are due to a declining demand. The 650 workers to be laid off their will be employed until March and April, according to company spokesman Jim McNamara. The 650 comes out of a total 1,600 that work at the plant, the largest Volvo manufacturing plant in the world. There has been a solid decline in employment over the past few years. Just three years ago, in 2006, nearly 3,200 people were employed there.

Amsted Rail Co., in the Tri-Cities, has laid off 120 employees at a plant in Petersburg. Amsted said in a statement that the “severely deteriorating economic conditions that have affected most industries,” was the reason for the layoffs.

Rick Louthan, the vice president of operations for Amsted, claimed that the company tried to avoid layoffs with a hiring freeze, attrition, discontinuing the use of contract workers and a reduction in overtime, however, the rate of deterioration was worse than was expected.

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