U.S. auto sales are off to a strong start this year, continuing their brisk pace from late 2011. Chrysler had its best January in four years.FORT WAYNE – A Michigan-based auto parts maker is laying off about 100 workers in Pierceton and Auburn.
Contech LLC confirmed late Tuesday that 59 workers in its Pierceton operation will be part of a mass layoff scheduled to begin between July 1 and 8. The Kosciusko County plant, which employed 114 in April, will continue to operate, said Ralph Turner, Contech’s human resources director.
The company lost some important customers but hopes to replace the orders and call workers back, Turner wrote in an official notice to the state.
“It is unfortunate at this time, however, that we cannot predict if and when we will be once again at current staffing levels,” he said in the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing dated June 2.
The job losses come on top of about 40 workers already on layoff from Contech’s Auburn plant.
The number of employees affected wasn’t enough to warrant a separate WARN-notice filing, Turner said. The DeKalb County operation employed about 100 in April, he said.
Contech expects the layoff will last through the end of July, Turner said. The decision to idle workers was related to shutdowns by automakers, he said.
Workers at both the Pierceton and Auburn plants average $18 an hour, Turner said. They are not members of a union.
Contech, once a global manufacturer, now operates five plants, including two in Michigan and one in Tennessee. On its Web site, the company describes itself as a “premier supplier of highly engineered, fully machined, geometrically complex, lightweight die cast components for the automotive market.”
The Portage, Mich.-based manufacturer filed for bankruptcy reorganization Jan. 31. The company’s financial weakness has scared off some customers, Turner told the state.
“Recent attempts to sell all or portions of the casting business to raise sufficient capital to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy have not yet led to results,” he wrote. “This coupled with reduced production requests from our existing customers, sluggish auto sales and seasonal summer slowdowns, has forced us to adjust staffing levels accordingly.”
The layoffs are in an area hard-hit by job losses.
Kosciusko reported 12.2 percent unemployment in April, the most recent data available from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. The statistics were not seasonally adjusted. DeKalb’s unemployment in April was 13.4 percent.
