Staff report
The planned layoffs of 420 workers at Freightliner’s Cleveland took effect Friday, along with 80 employees at the Gastonia plant.
Freightliner announced plans for this layoff in early March. There was some hope the layoffs would be delayed or cancelled, but that has not happened.
The most recent layoff will cut into the first-shift workforce and affect employees in the truck plant and its associated pre-delivery inspection facility.
After Friday’s layoff, the Cleveland operation will have about 700 employees, the company said in March.
The 80 Gastonia employees worked at Freightliner’s Gastonia Components and Logistics Plant.
Daimler Trucks North America, parent of Freightliner, said in a March statement, “deteriorating economic and market conditions and further significant decline in new truck orders are leading to the newly announced reductions.”
In March, 1,290 Cleveland plant workers were laid off as the facility eliminated its second shift.
Last June, the company laid off 1,500 workers in Cleveland, before calling back about 650 employees in August and reinstating a “partial second shift.”
In April 2007, Freightliner eliminated the Cleveland plant’s third shift by laying off 1,180 workers.
The Cleveland plant was once Rowan County’s largest employer.