The second largest manufacturer of trucks and buses recently announced that they will be implementing a short-term work break at their Dublin, Ireland truck assembly plant. The said work break will span three weeks as the company makes adjustments at the facility to facilitate the assembly of 2007 model year Volvo trucks. The announcement came from Volvo Trucks' spokesman Jim McNamara.
The spokesperson pointed out that the assembly plant will close down until the ninth of June. McNamara said that through the work break, "we'll be temporarily reducing the work force at the New River Valley plant to address some of the disturbances" in production." He added that "some of the employees will be remaining there to address trucks needing attention before they are shipped."
While the work break is definite, McNamara did not disclose how many employees will be affected by the temporary workforce reduction. Although he has not announced the number of employees that will be affected, he maintained that the company is planning to bring all of the employees who will be affected back to their jobs by the end of the work break. Aside from not announcing the number of employees that will be affected by the said work break, McNamara also did not cite the actual reasons for the so called "disturbances". The spokesman only said that the work break has something to do with the shift in the production of U.S. truck models for 2007. He also said that the temporary workforce reduction has nothing to do with product design or the stricter emissions standards set by the United States.
The temporary closing down of the Dublin plant is done during the summer months. But the announced work break is said to be not a part of the said routine work break every summer. McNamara pointed out that the scheduled work break is separate from the routine plant closure. The plant produces Volvo trucks for sale in North America. Volvo trucks like the Volvo FM7, FM10and FM12 equipped with and other Volvo components are produced at the said facility. This announcement may have strike fear among Volvo Trucks employees since it was announced earlier that the company will be cutting down jobs at the said assembly facility.
It has been reported that about 1,000 jobs will be cut by the Swedish company. This number though was reduced to 900 shortly. The said workforce reduction step is made due to lowered sales and increased production costs. The increase in the cost of production is the result of harsher emission standards set by governments around the world. This means that the company needs to pour in money in the development and production of components that will enable their trucks and buses to meet emission standards.
