The St. Cloud Electrolux freezer factory will pause production May 9-13 and lay off about 130 workers May 23.
It is the fifth pause in production and the second major layoff in less than a year.
Electrolux spokesman Tony Evans attributed both events to a “softening of demand in the freezer market.”
The May 23 layoffs, announced Thursday, affect the evening shift on a line making large and small upright home freezers. Workers could be called back when demand improves or other jobs open, Evans said. Unlike a December layoff of 229 workers, the May 23 downsizing is not related to outsourcing.
Stockholm-based Electrolux AB saw 2004 net income fall 34 percent. To stay competitive, it plans to move about 13 of its 43 U.S. and European appliance plants to lower-cost areas such as Eastern Europe, Asia and Mexico.
Local and state officials are watching the fate of the St. Cloud plant, the city’s largest for-profit employer.
The plant will have 1,350 employees after the layoff, down almost 9 percent from January.
The St. Cloud plant also halted production April 11-15, contributing to a dramatic spike in unemployment claims that month.
Claims increased 13 percent statewide from a year ago. They increased 75 percent in Benton, Sherburne, Stearns and Wright counties combined, according to data released Thursday by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Temporary claims from manufacturing workers dominated.
Electrolux employee Terry Christle was among those making a claim in April, but his check was delayed because he filed incorrectly. The latest shut-down announcement and missed pay during his daughter’s recent hospitalization means he will have to sell the St. Cloud home he and his wife bought nine years ago.
“I’m going to take my equity before I lose it,” Christle said. He builds freezer compressors at the plant. It’s one of many jobs he’s had there in the past 13 years.
Temporary shutdowns also create uncertainty for suppliers and other businesses tied to the St. Cloud Electrolux plant, Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. manager Gary Griggs said. His St. Cloud plant makes corrugated boxes for Electrolux.
Workers at the plant have mixed feelings about their future, Christle said.
“A lot of people trying to sell things to get through,” he said. “It’s wait and see what’s going to happen next.”
From The St. Cloud Times