Bridgestone lays off 91 plant employees

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations LLC laid off 91 more employees from its Bloomington, Ill., off-the-road tire plant on July 12, following the completion of an extended one-week shut down.

"With the current downturn in construction -- residential and commercial -- as well as mining, the demand for off-road tires continues to decline," said the company in an official statement. The layoffs are one of the steps needed to "align our inventories with current replacement market and original equipment demand."

Although it anticipates calling back 40 employees on Aug. 1, Bridgestone said that "based on inventory levels and industry demand, we currently plan on laying off 19 employees on Aug. 15."

After the layoffs are complete, there will be 204 (148 hourly, 56 salaried) employees at the Bloomington plant. (Earlier this year, Bridgestone laid off 67 of the plant's hourly employees. See "Bloomington layoffs necessary, says Bridgestone," Feb. 15, 2009.)

"We will continue to evaluate the marketplace, demand and our inventory levels, and will make future production-based decisions -- up or down -- that help our company survive this global financial crisis so that we can take advantage of the economic recovery when it occurs," added the company.