TG Missouri announces workforce changes
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[On Tuesday, February 3rd, TG Missouri Corporation announced that a sudden unforeseen drop in sales for the first quarter of 2009 combined with unclear forecasts for the second quarter will result in a temporary layoff of more than 140 production and support group team members effective Monday, February 9th.
"These reductions are directly related to the dramatic decrease in automotive sales toward the end of 2008 and brand new forecasts for the first quarter of 2009 from TG Missouri's customers such as Toyota, Honda and General Motors," stated Todd Huber, Senior Vice President of Safety Systems Division. Least senior production employees were identified for temporary layoffs in each division. Employees in support departments were also subject to downsizing due to the drop in production. Employees will receive full medical benefits at minimum during February and March while eligible to draw unemployment. Benefits could be extended further during the temporary layoff, but no final determinations have been made.
"TG Missouri management took many counter-measures as sales began to decline last year in hopes of avoiding this unfortunate situation for our team members and their families," said Rhonda Ruark, General Manager of Corporate Administration/Human Resources. "Last year we reduced our temporary workforce from nearly 115 employees to 2 employees. We used extra staff freed up due to low volume to cover medical leaves of absence, vacation days, special projects or quality sorts. We encouraged the use of additional vacation time, long term non-medical leaves of absence, job sharing and 32 hour work weeks wherever possible."
Dean Link, Vice President of Interior/Exterior division agrees with those efforts and ongoing communication to employees. "However, when several customer's facilities recently announced 3 day work weeks for February and/or March, we simply could no longer ignore the fact that we have more people than necessary to make parts."
TG Missouri manufactures automotive safety systems and interior/exterior automotive products including airbags, steering wheels, consoles, dashboard equipment and painted trim parts. TG Missouri is the first of Toyoda Gosei's ten facilities in the United States, celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2007. While TG Missouri has employed nearly 1200 or more employees at the Perryville facility in recent years, the company will now employ about 900 senior and top performing team members following the current adjustment in workforce.
Takashi Fujii, President of TG Missouri summarized the company's condition: "TG Missouri must survive the current downturn in business in order to meet our long term goal of being a viable automotive supplier 10, 25 or 50 years from now. Reaching that long term goal is best for TG, our customers, our employees and this community. Unfortun-ately, it also requires reductions in labor at this time. While no one knows for sure what the future holds, we would like to remain optimistic that the automotive industry, along with the U.S. and global economy, will gradually improve in the next twelve to eighteen months."