Freightliner sends notices to state about layoffs

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Last year, President Barack Obama recognized workers at the Mount Holly Freightliner plant as innovators. On Thursday, Freightliner sent the Department of Commerce notices about layoffs.

A representative from the Department of Commerce in Raleigh said Freightliner sent them three notices Thursday morning. Those notices must be filed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The state requires companies to do that if they are laying off more than 500 workers.

Eyewitness News started getting calls two days ago from Freightliner workers who were told major layoffs are coming at the plant in Gastonia, the one in Mount Holly and the plant in Cleveland.

Employee Torrance Clark was stunned when he learned the Mount Holly plant was laying off 405 workers.

"Yea, it came out of the blue for me," Clark said. "I didn't see it coming."

He is not in the group being laid off, but in his 14 years at the plant, he's been laid off four times.

"Bills, they are going to come whether you are laid off or not," Clark said.

In a release Thursday, Daimler Trucks said it had to lay off workers because truck orders are down, so they have to cut production.

There will also be 715 workers laid off at the plant in Cleveland and 80 in the plant in Gastonia.

The company had classified the layoffs as temporary and said they will begin on April 1.

The manager of the division of workforce solutions said it will help retrain workers, because there are jobs out there for freightliner employees who work with machines.

"There are a lot of technical jobs that employers are not able to fill," said Sharon Riggan with the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Carmen Farbo said these layoffs have a domino effect.

"You take 400 workers away, how many other hundreds of workers do you lose?" Farbo asked.

Farbo has installed machines at the Mount Holly plant. He said machinists like him will get fewer orders for work.

"There will be a lot of jobs lost at these 100-employee plants that make these springs or plastic parts or whatever the million parts are that go together to build a truck," he said.

WSOC