Layoff (734 employees) at Dublin (VA) Volvo (truck) plant comes as union contract nears expiration

The Roanoke Times ^ | December 1, 2015 | Robby Korth and Yann Ranaivo

[Perseverando]

MATT GENTRY | The Roanoke Times

A Volvo truck with its iconic diagonal grill slash
drives past the Volvo New River Valley Plant in
Dublin Tuesday. Volvo Trucks' Dublin plant will lay
off 734 employees in February.

DUBLIN - Those in and around Pulaski County's Volvo truck plant, one of the largest employers in Western Virginia, were coming to terms Tuesday with another announcement of a mass layoff.

Volvo will lay off 734 production employees over a three-week period in February, news that county officials first learned after a notice the company filed Tuesday. That represents a quarter of the plant's workforce.

The announcement came just two months after politicians and other officials met at the plant to trumpet a $38 million expansion.

The layoff announcement also came the day before the plant's United Auto Workers Local Chapter 2069 is set to vote on whether or not leadership can authorize a strike in the future, according to the union's Facebook page. Early next year, a five-year agreement from 2011 between the union and Volvo is set to expire.

When that agreement was ratified by the union in 2011, Volvo rehired about 700 workers who had previously been laid off.

Multiple union leaders and members declined to speak with The Roanoke Times on Tuesday afternoon.

Volvo spokesman John Mies wrote in an email that the layoffs are the result of economic shifts and have nothing to do with any other factors at the plant.

"We regret having to take this action, but we operate in a cyclical market, and we have to adapt to market demand," he wrote. "The North American truck market is going through an industry-wide correction. Highway

[Vigilanteman]

Funny how the Japanese auto plants in the United States don't have massive layoffs other than the celebrated Toyota venture with General Motors a few years ago.

There was the same common denominator as present here: The U.A.W. Now, why would that be?

[AlaskaErik]

Every now and then I see a Volvo truck on the road. I wonder what truckers think of them.

[ArtDodger]

A bit off topic, but have a friend who owns a plant in Virginia and when Obama won his first term to the presidency, the owner walked through the parking lot and copied down all the license plates with Obama stickers on them. When the lay-offs could no longer be avoided, he had a very nice list of those who needed to be the first to go...

[PAR35]

Took a long road trip last week. I saw a lot of them. What I didn’t see much of were Macks. There were some Petes.

[hecticskeptic]

I’ve been to the plant a number of times... great truck, great plant and a great general manager. What this really tells you is that even with all that going for you, this economy is in the toilet. Don’t know enough about the truck manufacturing industry in general to comment on how much ‘over capacity’ there might be but based on what is going on in industry in general (particularly the resource industry), it’s downright miserable. I would bet that some of these layoffs are a result of that state of affairs.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Volvo owns Mac.

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group owns Volvo cars and I think(???)
a chunk of Volvo truck.

Yes, Geeky is Chinese.

[DoodleDawg]

When that agreement was ratified by the union in 2011, Volvo rehired about 700 workers who had previously been laid off.

So when this deal is ratified then I assume the 700 laid off will be rehired again as well.

[C. Edmund Wright]

...behind every economic problem, there’s a union.....

[dfwgator]

I was at that plant years ago doing an IT project. I got the tour of the plant and saw a truck built from start to finish, it was amazing to watch.

[PAR35]

I think the cars and trucks got split up when Ford bought Volvo cars, but the Swedes kept the trucks. The cars ended up with China, while India has a big chunk of the truck company (Eicher). On the other hand, Volvo now has Renault Trucks (which is how they got Mack). Volvo has ties to Nissan, while Eicher has ties to Mitsubishi.

[Rockpile]

Volvo acquired White/Autocar and later merged with GMC in the 80s. There are lots of Volvo OTR tractors. I see many Mack tractors in the oil patch but very few Macks with sleepers.

One of my brothers worked at a shop rigging trucks for the oil field years ago and said the Macks were more of a pain to drill since their frames were so heavy duty.