Plant shutdown, layoffs affect more than 200 area jobs

A plant shutdown and a seasonal layoff will result in more than 200 manufacturing job losses and layoffs heading into the holiday seasons.

Southern Steel & Wire, a longtime member of the Fort Smith manufacturing community and a vendor to Whirlpool, notified the city of Fort Smith that it will end production at its Fort Smith beginning Dec. 22.

“As a result of this cessation of production operations, 117 employees will be permanently laid off with the majority leaving in the anticipated 14-day period from December 22, 2010 through January 5, 2011,” noted a letter dated Oct. 22 from James Echols, corporate director of human resources for SSW Holding Co., to Fort Smith Mayor Ray Baker.

Most of the employees are members of United Steelworkers Local 13-467, according to Echols’ letter. He said the layoff schedule could change based on production demands.

The largest area customer for Southern Steel & Wire is Whirlpool, which is expected to end a second shift of refrigerator production in late November. It’s unclear how many jobs will be cut when production is reduced on the 25-cubic-foot side-by-side refrigerator, but it was initially estimated the shift would employ at least 400.

Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool has made numerous production cuts and layoffs causing employment in Fort Smith to drop from about 4,600 in early 2006 to less than 2,000 today.

Rheem Manufacturing announced Tuesday (Oct. 26) that it planned a seasonal layoff of approximately 100 employees beginning Oct. 29. It is unclear how long the layoffs will last, and how the numbers compare to previous seasonal cycles. (The City Wire has asked several questions of Rheem about the layoffs, and this post will be updated when/if responses are received.)

It was certainly a different story at Rheem this time last year.

In late October 2009, Rheem was in the process of calling back as many as 208 people to production at the company’s Fort Smith manufacturing plant.

Rick Lolley, head of human resources for Rheem’s Fort Smith operation, told The City Wire during the time that 148 employees were to be called back to help support increased production, including a gas furnace manufacturing line to start up around Nov. 30. Lolley said 60 temporary workers would be required for about four months of production. The increased work is seasonal and the result from “higher forecasted demand,” he said.

At the time, Rheem’s Fort Smith operation produced heating and air conditioning systems. The plant had about 1,000 hourly employees and more than 300 salaried employees.

Manufacturing sector jobs continue to be problematic for the Fort Smith area.

September manufacturing employment in the Fort Smith area was an estimated 21,100, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure is down from 21,300 in August and down from 21,600 in September 2009. Prior to August, the manufacturing sector trended upward since January when the job count was 21,300. Employment in the sector is down 31.2% from a decade ago when January 2001 manufacturing employment in the metro area stood at 30,700.