Titan to lay off 130 workers at US plant

Bryan, Ohio – Titan Tire Corp. plans to lay off at least 130 workers at its Bryan farm and off-the-road tire manufacturing plant beginning next 8 Feb.

The company anticipates the layoffs will be temporary but last at least six months, according to Thomas Ort, operations manager at Titan Tire of Bryan, in a 9 Dec letter to the Bureau of Employment and Training Programs within the Ohio office of workplace development.

The layoffs are due to weak market conditions that Titan does not expect to improve during 2016, Ort said. “The length of the layoffs depends on market conditions, and if market conditions do not improve, some layoffs may be permanent.”

Employees covered by the plant’s collective bargaining agreement with the United Steelworkers (USW) union will have “bumping rights” – that is, the right to take the positions of junior employees if their own jobs are eliminated, Ort said. Management employees will be laid off by position.

Titan acquired the Bryan facility from Continental Tire the Americas LLC in August 2006. The plant has seen labour unrest in the plant, including a company lockout in December 2010 that affected workers at Bryan and two other Titan facilities.

After net losses in the third quarter of 2014, Titan Chairman and CEO Maurice “Morry” Taylor Jr. said the company was working with the USW to realign the Bryan facility to improve profitability. Taylor did not disclose further details.

The figures on the current number of workers at the Bryan plant weren’t immediately available. Officials of Titan and USW 890L, which organizes the Bryan facility, could not be reached for immediate comment.