Company lays off more workers in North Dakota town

By BLAKE NICHOLSON

posted: 166 DAYS 12 HOURS AGO

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BISMARCK, N.D. -A plant that has provided jobs in the southeastern North Dakota town of Oakes for decades is down to about five dozen workers after another round of layoffs.

JLG Industries Inc., which makes aerial work platform lifts for commercial and military use, on Friday notified 23 production workers that their jobs were being cut. That brought the total of laid-off workers over the past year to 104 — all but two of them production workers, said company spokeswoman Ann Stawski.

The economic slump and depressed construction industry "have really had a dramatic impact for JLG," Stawski said Tuesday.

She declined to say how many workers remain at the Oakes plant. Mayor Garry Opp said he was told by a company official that 61 workers remain, but that the plant might operate only every other week.

"The future doesn't look too bright in the short term," he said.

The JLG plant, operating under various owners since the early 1970s, has been one of the major employers in the town of 2,000 people, the mayor said. It provided work for about 175 people as late as last year, he said.

Layoffs have hit JLG Industries plants around the world, Stawski said. The company is a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corp.

Since last June, "we're looking at 50 percent of total employees" laid off, Stawski said.

She declined to say whether the Oakes plant might be shut down entirely. Opp said he has heard no talk of that in town.

"I know some of the (laid-off) people are still in town, finding other jobs or hoping to stay, (but) we have lost some residents," the mayor said.

Opp said some smaller manufacturers in Oakes have cut a few employees but "most of them are holding their own right now, hoping for the end of the recession."

2009-05-26 17:58:49