Aisin Holdings of America in Seymour announced Friday it is working toward an 11-percent reduction of its hourly staff for workers at its three divisions in Jackson County -- Aisin U.S.A. Manufacturing in Seymour and Aisin Drivetrain and Aisin Chemical, both in Crothersville.
It's also cutting production lines to four eight-hour days at all three plants.
Mark Handloser, senior manager of human resources for Aisin Holdings, said the cutbacks are a "result of further declines in customer demands and forecasted shutdown days and weeks by all of our automotive customers."
Handloser said the 11 percent reduction entails about 100 jobs at Aisin USA in Seymour.
"Aisin Drivetrain and Chemical do not have a number that we're looking for, but the voluntary incentives are being offered to all of their team members," Handloser said Friday night.
"The three Aisin companies recently announced to all team members that they were offering an early exit incentive program that included enhanced separation payments and extended insurance benefits based on their years of service with Aisin," Handloser said.
That announcement was made Monday, he added.
Handloser expressed some optimism that some of those layed off workers could eventually be recalled.
"We anticipate production demands to increase later this year, so we are viewing this as temporary," he said. "If we have anyone on involuntary temporary time off, they will be given priority recall rights."
All three plants are involved in the automative industry.
Jim Plump of Jackson County Industrial Development Corp. said Friday the layoffs are another sign of a worsening economy, especially in the automotive sector. Carmakers across the board, both domestic and foreign, reported this week that sales were down sharply in December.
"This just continues to show the difficulty in the automotive industry," Plump said. "We're seeing the demands for autos go down, so the demand for new production is going down and the demand for parts from Tier I and Tier II parts supplies is going down."
Late last year, Aisin USA reported it would be seeking a voluntary reduction of its salaried employees. Handloser said Friday those cuts were implemented earlier this month, resulting in about "50 voluntary exits" or about 20 percent of its salaried employees. Earlier, the company layed off about 300 temporary hourly workers.
"Hopefully there will be enough interest in the Early Exit Incentive Program to attain the necessary reductions," Handloser said. "If not, some companies will be implementing other measures such as Involuntary Temporary Time Off, which will include paid insurance benefits for a period of time and priority recall privileges once production demands begin to increase, which is anticipated to happen later this year.
Also, all three plants announced the majority of their production lines were being scheduled to an eight-hour, four-day workweek.
"Unfortunately, the duration of these reduced work schedules are unknown at this time," Handloser said.
Handloser said the firms managers "appreciate the patience and understanding of our most important asset -- our team members -- as we navigate through these difficult times."
Aisin, which currently employs 1,900 people in Jackson County, has been a member of the community since 1987.