By Dan Shaw, Evansville Courier & Press
A supplier of Toyota has laid off about 30 employees in the wake of production changes made at Toyota's Princeton plant.
Transfreight LLC, which trucks supplies to the plant, laid off the workers in mid-August, according to David Burns, the chief operating officer of the company. The company, based in Erlanger, Ky., had warned state officials of the possibility of the job losses in July, saying then that as many as 60 positions might be eliminated.
Burns said the company offered different assignments to nearly all of the workers who lost their jobs. Eighteen of them were taken.
The new assignments call for hauling supplies longer distances.
"Our goal all along was to offer as much work as possible to all of our employees," Burns said.
The layoffs came as a result of Toyota's decision to cease making the Tundra pickup truck at the Princeton plant. Also hurting Transfreight has been Toyota's temporary halt in the production of Sequoia sport utility vehicles. Toyota has said it will resume making the Sequoia in November.
Transfreight shipped parts used in both vehicles, Burns said. It is also involved in the production of the Sienna minivan, which Toyota continues to make at the Princeton plant.
Burns said he hopes the arrival of the Highlander SUV, which the plant will begin making in fall 2009, will bring new opportunities to Transfreight.
"Maybe the layoffs will be on a temporary basis," he said. "We are not sure. It really depends on what happens in November and beyond."
The changes in production have hurt other suppliers of Toyota. Dana Corp., for instance, has shut its Owensboro factory down for three months.
Chuck Hartlage, a Dana spokesman, said the company plans to resume production in November but the extent of that work will depend on Toyota's actions. Workers at the Owensboro factory had made frames for both the Tundra and Sequoia.
Dana's headquarters is in Toledo, Ohio. In August the company, which recently emerged from a bankruptcy, announced it would cut around 3,000 jobs in 2008. The company reported it lost $140 million in the second quarter of the year.