HIGH POINT, N.C. — Thomas Built Buses will lay off about 16 percent of its workforce due to low school bus orders, the company announced.
In a statement, the company said the cuts were “due to ongoing lower order activity in the school bus industry, which is expected to continue as the current economic recession impacts state and local school transportation budgets.”
Layoffs for up to 195 hourly plant workers and 10 salaried workers in the 1,200-employee division of Daimler Trucks North America took effect today.
Earlier this month, Daimler Trucks North America said 2,300 hourly workers and 1,200 salaried workers would lose their jobs elsewhere in the company in changes that discontinued its Sterling Truck Brand and moved production of its Western Star trucks from Portland, Ore., to Santiago, Mexico. The company said the changes reflected sales decreases of 10 percent from last year and a 43 percent drop compared to 2006.
Thomas Built said it had been operating on a modified build schedule to sustain as much of the workforce as possible but could not counteract market conditions.
