Business & Industry

Mack Trucks to lay off around 300 individuals in Lower Macungie as market slows

Mack Trucks said Wednesday that it intends to lay off 305 employees one month from now at its Lower Macungie Township assembly plant as the cyclical heavy-duty truck market swings descending.

That would represent about 13% of the plant’s payroll of 2,400 individuals, who gather all Mack trucks worked for the North American market.

Mack representative Christopher Heffner said the organization will have the option to offer voluntary layoffs to around 75 of the influenced 305. The layoffs will be effective after the end of business Feb. 28, he said.

“We regret having to take this action, but we operate in a cyclical market, and after two years of extremely high volumes, we have to adapt to reduced market demand,” Heffner said, taking note of that the organization expects the North American truck market to be down about 30% this year.

Workers were informed regarding the news Wednesday. An internal newsletter circulated among employees Wednesday, and reviewed by The Morning Call, demonstrated the production adjustment could have brought about the layoff of 400 workers however the organization and United Auto Workers authorities consented to utilize a voluntary layoff option to decrease the blow.

Heffner said outplacement support meetings will be accommodated every single influenced worker, who additionally will get data about services accessible through the Private Industry Council and Pennsylvania CareerLink.

United Auto Workers Local 677, which represents the greater part of the plant’s employees, didn’t promptly remark.

Be that as it may, the planned layoff was expected, after Mack informed workers in December that it would need to modify the plant’s assemble rate to line up with diminished demand. The last critical layoff at the Mack plant came in mid-2016 when the organization laid off around 400 of the office’s then-1,850 laborers as demand slowed.

Mack additionally is planning down weeks, which implies a larger part of the plant will be on temporary layoff. Mack is arranging two down a long time toward the finish of the first quarter as it further changes with the market, and afterward another two from the early in the second quarter, Heffner said.

Production had surged at the plant through quite a bit of 2019, as employees worked through a hefty backlog after orders had flown in all through 2018.

Envisioning a slowdown late in 2019, Mack had planned two down weeks in the final quarter, yet those were canceled to make up for lost time with production lost during a 12-day strike that included more than 3,500 Mack laborers in October.

Many truck-creators as of now have reported or finished production changes.

For instance, Mack sister organization Volvo Trucks previously reported plans to lay off around 700 employees this month at its Dublin, Virginia, assembly plant, which utilizes more than 3,000. Daimler Trucks North America in October cut around 900 jobs at two Freightliner plants in North Carolina.

Steve Tam, VP of Americas Commercial Transportation Research Co., said his firm projects that U.S. heavy-duty truck creation finished 2019 at around 287,000, which included around 211,000 highway trucks and 76,000 vocational trucks (a segment that incorporates construction and garbage trucks, where Mack is especially solid).

In 2020, Tam stated, ACT Research expects truck production to drop to 180,000, which incorporates a projected 121,000 highway trucks and 59,000 vocational trucks.

Tam said that the firm anticipates that 2021 should be “incrementally better,” however production will doubtlessly fall through the final quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021.

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Katie Read
Katie Read is born and raised in Tampa; she graduated from The University of Tampa with an English and Creative degree. After beginning her career in content creation and copywriting, she joined the News Feed Central. When she isn’t writing up news, people can find her at a concert, by the pool, or trying out a new recipe.