Posted on 11/11/2003 4:47:01 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
THOMASVILLE, N.C. -- Thomasville Furniture Industries will cut 200 jobs in the next two to three months as it continues to suffer under competition from imports, the company says.
The layoffs announced Monday will affect four of the company's wood-furniture plants and nine plants that support the wood manufacturing operations, said Rick Millen, director of human resources.
One of the main wood plants is in Caldwell County; the rest are in the Thomasville area.
"We are not closing a plant," Millen said. "And we have no plans to close another plant. This is just a way to get our capacity to where it meets our needs."
Millen said he couldn't say how many jobs will be cut at each plant. Some will only have one or two positions eliminated, others about 60.
Millen said the company hopes to have plants working full-time by the start of next year.
"We are trying to rebalance our employment level to get as many people working full schedules, meaning 40-hour weeks, as possible in 2004," said Paul Dascoli, Thomasville Furniture's executive vice president. "The current production demand has not been enough lately to accomplish that goal."
Dascoli said that a small number of jobs were eliminated Monday. The remaining job cuts will be determined after the manufacturer completes an assessment of its manufacturing and supply departments.
The company, like many U.S. furniture makers, has had to close plants and slash work forces in recent years. Imports, especially from China, have been putting the squeeze on American furniture-making operations.
To compete, Thomasville Furniture, a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Furniture Brands International, has shifted a growing portion of its production overseas.
It closed one of its plants in Thomasville at the end of 2002 and another in Winston-Salem in June of this year. Five years ago, Thomasville Furniture Industries employed about 7,000 people in four states. After the most recent job cuts, the furniture makers will employ about 5,200 people in North Carolina and Virginia.
Thomasville Furniture is applying for U.S. Trade Adjustment Act benefits for the workers and will ask for assistance this week from the N.C. Employment Security Commission.
Dascoli said the Thomasville layoffs fit with the parent company's strategy. Thomasville, he said, had been planning to reduce its work force before the parent company's Oct. 24 announcement that it would accelerate plans to reduce manufacturing capacity in its six divisions before Jan. 1.
Davidson County continues to carry the brunt of the Triad's furniture-manufacturing layoffs. With the latest Thomasville Furniture cuts, there have been about 2,262 furniture jobs eliminated in the county since February 2002, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission.
The Triad as a whole has lost about 3,462 furniture jobs in that time span. The county's unemployment rate in September was 7.7 percent, the highest in the Triad.
It's the fault of the spoiled American workers. Instead of working for 10 for 15 bucks an hour, they should have offered to work for 5 or 6 bucks an hour. This is all part of the new economy that the Bush administration speaks of. The more layoffs the better. It's the new order.
I'm seeing helped wanted signs all down Main Street. There is no shortage of jobs anymore.
Maybe it's time for those American/Confederate flag truckers to be more patriotic and show support for most favored trading partner by displaying the Chinese flag.
They took a big hit when the EPA back in the 90's required new formulas for their finishes. Lots of bad finishes and colors that didn't match existing pre-EPA pieces.
I hadn't looked at furniture in several years, and happened to wander into Value City (a discount store) and they had beautiful pieces at a very cheap price, all imports. The Chinese have copied the high-end lines as far as design goes, but they are using inferior wood and techniques. If you want to sit a piece in the corner, it's probably OK, but I sure wouldn't buy a piece that had to have the drawers opened every day, or had people sitting on it.
Furniture mark-up at retail is around 300%, because retailers don't sell to a customer but on average once every 5 years.
Thomasville has a knock-down line now carried at Target. Apparently they are trying to compete by diversifying into some other niches.
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