Electrolux Home Products announced it would lay off 229 workers, or 13 percent of its production jobs, as it shifts some work on a small chest freezer to China.
The company said Thursday that the layoffs would be finished by Dec. 17. Most of the cuts would come from one third-shift production line. The workers involved would be the least senior in the plant, mostly college students and Somali immigrants.
Union representative Lewis Neuman said their employment contract allows the workers to be rehired as other jobs become available.
“I hope to God that all these people get hired back,” Neuman said. “It’s a bad time of the year for a layoff.”
The company has alerted the state’s dislocated worker program, which can provide career counseling and retraining. The average hourly wage for those losing their jobs is about $11.40, Neuman said.
Electrolux spokesman Tony Evans said some production of a 5-cubic-foot chest freezer will shift to China. Layoffs also are based on overall changes in orders and inventory.
“The small chest freezer segment is a very cost-sensitive part of the business,” Evans said.
Neuman said about 80 percent of the 5-cubic-foot freezer production is going to Guangdong Kelon Electrical Holdings Company Ltd., a publicly held home appliance manufacturer.
Neuman said he was “very concerned” that the freezer plant could close as did an Electrolux plant in Michigan, which is shutting down as jobs move to Mexico.
“This (layoff) might be the start of something we don’t want to hear,” he said.
About 1,660 workers will remain at the St. Cloud Electrolux plant after the layoffs.
From Duluth News Tribune