GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Workers at the Great Dane Trailers plant in Greenville will be out of jobs for good on March 21.
The company cut jobs at the plant here in September, then again in December, and recently cut back to 28-hour weeks, said Great Dane spokeswoman Brandie Fuller.
''It's just that business is not turning around,'' Fuller said Thursday. ''We're unable to keep production moving at this time.''
Workers were notified in January that closure was anticipated.
Other Great Dane facilities are in Wayne, Neb.; Brazil, Ind.; Danville, Pa.; Huntsville, Tenn.; Jonesboro, Ark.; Kewanee, Ill.; and Terre Haute, Ind.
''This is the only plant closing we have right now,'' Fuller said. ''Other plants are experiencing layoffs as well.''
Savannah, Ga.-based Great Dane builds trailers for companies that use both dry and refrigerated space.
Fuller said 37 employees were laid off Friday. She said the remaining staff would return to a 40-hour week until the plant shuts down.
The plant had 111 hourly employees and 25 salaried employees before Friday's layoffs, Fuller said. The plant will keep a skeleton maintenance crew on board until April 30.
Fuller had said that 2007 had been a rather slow year for the industry and that the business relies heavily on the automotive and the housing industries. Fuller explained that those industries require the transport of a lot of dry freight.
''When those industries slow down, so do the needs of the trailer industry,'' she said.
