Thirty-four more employees have been laid off from New Sabina Industries, according to Director Jack Filkins.
"Due to continued declines in the automotive market, New Sabina has determined that it must indefinitely decrease its workforce in production departments and production support departments," said Filkins. "No interruption or reduction of customer support is anticipated."
The 34 employees, which took effect on Feb. 16, represented seven percent of the total New Sabina workforce.
This round of layoffs follows the previous announcement of 23 layoffs that took effect in January.
New Sabina also shut down production for three Fridays in January, cutting hourly employees to 32 hours a week during that three-week period.
"We are through that," said Filkins. "However, our production schedule continues to be excruciatingly slow. We are offering hourly employees up to 40 hours a week, but we are also offering them what we call 'no pay, no penalty.' This means that if an employee's production line is down, they can stay on for 40 hours and help on another line. But if they want to go ahead and leave, they can do that with no pay, but they also won't have any type of attendance punishment."
The 57 total layoffs this year are the first in the company's 21-year history. "At this time, no decisions have been made regarding additional indefinite layoffs," said Filkins.
Although located in Clinton County, Fayette Countians represent a higher percentage of the New Sabina workforce than any other county.
Filkins said this has been a difficult time for New Sabina, however, the remaining employees haven't lost their morale.
"Through all of this uncertainty and anxiety, our people have never let it affect their work," Filkins said. "They continue to be extremely productive. It's been remarkable."
New Sabina is one of Clinton County's largest employers and serves as a manufacturer of instrument clusters for the automotive market. The company's customers include: Honda, Chrysler, Subaru-Indiana Automotive and Mitsubishi.
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