NOKIA, Finland (Jan. 22, 2009)—Nokian Tyres P.L.C. has laid off 232 workers in passenger and van tire production at its Nokia headquarters plant and begun talks with employees in heavy tire production for additional cuts.
The job eliminations coincide with changes in the manufacturing schedule that effectively reduce the plant's annual production capacity by a third to 4 million car and van tires. Of the 232 employees who lost their jobs, 106 were covered by pension arrangements, Nokian said.
Nokian notified the workers in November it would cut production to five days a week from seven in line with reduced demand.
The company told the remaining 440 workers in car and van tire production they would be subject to rolling nine-week layoffs, 110 at a time, until demand improves. Another 62 were put on indefinite layoff.
At the same time Nokian has opened formal talks with about 280 workers in the heavy tires area at the plant covering the elimination of 50 jobs and severe cut-backs for the remaining 230.
In late December Nokian said it intends to trim production of heavy tires through mid-2009 by laying off employees for periods of 10 to 100 days throughout the period.
The heavy tires department makes forestry, harbor, mining, agricultural and industrial machinery tires.