A company that manufactures fuel filters for diesel trucks will layoff 138 employees next month from a plant in Cookeville. Cummins Filtration is moving the work to Mexico.
Sales of Cummins diesel fuel filters for large trucks have fallen 30% since last year. That’s the largest drop in the company’s history, and officials say they aren’t expecting demand to pick up until 2011.
Cummins announced in August it may consolidate its production of large diesel fuel filters in one location – San Luis Potosi, Mexico. This week the company filed with the state to lay off nearly 140 workers in mid-January.
Cummins spokesman Mark Land says there’s no intent to close down the operation in Cookeville.
“Even after that happens, Cookeville remains an extremely important part of our filtration business in North America.”
Land says more than 550 workers will remain after the downsizing.
The company’s plant in Lake Mills, Iowa, will also lose 400 employees.
“We manufacture the same sort of products in three different locations in North America, so it makes a lot of sense for us to streamline that and to consolidate it all into one location.”
Cummins already has 2,000 employees in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, and will add to that total over the next six months.
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