Production Cutbacks Imminent at BFGoodrich Tuscaloosa Factory

BFGoodrich is said to be laying off several hundred employees at its Tuscaloosa, Alabama factory, effective November 1, and significantly reducing tyre production over the next eight weeks. Local newspaper the Montgomery Advertiser reports BFGoodrich-Michelin spokeswoman Lynn Slovak as saying the layoffs would be temporary.

Vice president of the local United Steelworkers representative body, Dexter Beams, said the company plans to idle 40 per cent of the Tuscaloosa plant’s 1,282 workers for eight weeks and is seeking volunteers for the layoffs. Slovak confirmed the comments made by Beams regarding the layoffs, quoting a weakening global economy as the causal factor, but she did not confirm the number of workers that would be affected.