Bridgestone To Lay Off Hundreds More Workers

Bridgestone’s plant in LaVergne will soon reduce truck tire production and stop making consumer tires altogether. That means hundreds more lay-offs beyond the number initially announced in December.

543 workers will lose their jobs as consumer tires are phased out. Details of the shut down still have to be worked out between the company and the United Steelworkers Union. Reductions on the truck tire line will result in another 259 lay-offs, which the company hopes will be temporary.

Some workers have suggested the cuts specifically target the plant in LaVergne because of its union workforce. Plant Manager John McLaughlin says that’s not so.

“I hate that somebody would feel that way, but it really isn’t the case at all. It’s just that we are the high-cost plant, and mostly that is not related to the fact that it’s a union plant, it’s just that it’s an older facility, and it’s not the most up-to-date technologically.”

McLaughlin says the plant is the company’s oldest in the US.

Company officials say they hope to be able to recall some of the laid-off workers from the truck line when the economy picks up, but they don’t expect that to be possible before the end of the year.

Nina Cardona co-wrote this story.