By Annie Goeller, Daily Journal of Johnson County staff writer
Eighty-seven workers will lose their jobs in June when a Franklin company hit hard by lagging auto sales stops mass production.
Beginning June 7, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Climate Control plans to suspend production of the automotive air conditioning parts its makes until demand increases, according to a news release from the company.
The reduction is due to recent deterioration of economic conditions and insufficient sales, the company's release said.
The company is not closing the plant, but how long production will be suspended isn't known, the release said.
The company isn't expecting improvement for at least a year, the release said.
After June, some employees will continue working at the plant but would focus on shipping and receiving, instead of producing new parts, Franklin Mayor Fred Paris said.
The Franklin plant and equipment will be kept in running condition while waiting for economic conditions to improve, the news release said.
Paris said the news hurts a community that already has suffered from multiple layoffs at other companies, including KYB Manufacturing, NSK Precision America and Trussway Ltd., which plans to close its Franklin plant this year.
"We've just got to hope and pray this rebound comes as quickly as people are saying it may," Paris said.
The Franklin factory already had installed the equipment for a planned $5 million investment to make a new, lighter air-conditioner part intended to improve gas mileage.
Workers were testing the equipment when Paris visited the plant about eight weeks ago, but he did not think they had begun making the new part, he said.
That new product was expected to add 36 jobs by 2011.
As of April 2008, the Franklin plant had 139 workers and had planned to expand to 175 jobs by 2011.
The company previously had two local locations - one in Greenwood and one in Franklin. In September, the Greenwood plant was closed, eliminating about 60 jobs, because the company was unable to replace a contract that expired.
In the late 1990s, the company had about 600 workers between the Greenwood and Franklin plants.
Workers were notified about the upcoming layoffs March 16, the release said.