DaimlerChrysler AG’s Freightliner unit said Monday it would lay off 3,745 U.S. and Canadian workers, 19 percent of the total, as the truckmaker cuts production because of slower North American truck demand.
Freightliner said layoffs will be at plants in Portland, 770 workers; Cleveland, NC, 1,304; Mount Holly, NC, 825; Gastonia, NC, 154; and St Thomas, Ontario, Canada, 692. The U.S. cuts will start Oct. 20 and the Canadian layoffs on Dec. 4, the Portland-based unit said.
Freightliner expects North American heavy-truck sales to fall as much as 25 percent this year from 1999. The industry-wide, North American heavy-truck output slipped to a 270,000-unit annual pace in the first half from a record 316,000 for all of 1999.
DaimlerChrysler plans to halt the third shift at its truck plants in Portland, Cleveland, Mount Holly and St. Thomas, and at a parts plant in Portland. Weekend shifts will stop at the Gastonia parts plant, Freightliner said.
Last month, Freightliner agreed to buy Western Star Trucks Holdings Ltd. for about $453.7 million. DaimlerChrysler, the world’s largest commercial truck maker, also agreed last month to buy the shares of Detroit Diesel Corp. that it doesn’t already own for about $423 million, creating the world’s largest maker of heavy-duty diesel truck engines.
The Freightliner unit had 1999 sales of about $11 billion.