Japan’s Yokohama Tire has said that it will lay off around 400 employees at its Salem plant in the US due to cuts in production and is further mulling over the closing of the facility.
Yokohama Tire said that the lowered production will begin in March and “is in response to the expiration of certain product lifecycles and reduced demand for other products manufactured at the Salem facility.”
“In light of rapidly-changing customer requirements and dynamic market conditions, the Salem facility is not well equipped to manufacture Yokohama’s required product mix or achieve the company’s manufacturing objectives in the future,” the company said.
The plant employs about 571 people altogether. The 392 being laid off include salaried and hourly workers.
Yokohama said that possible closure date would coincide with the end of its collective bargaining agreement with the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union.
The North American arm of Tokyo-based The Yokohama Rubber Co. has had the Salem plant since the 1960s, and Yokohama acquired it when it bought Mohawk Rubber Company in 1989. At its peak in 1996, the Salem plant employed around 1,000 people.