Wednesday was a bad day for 210 Zeledyne employees as they were told that March 28 would be their last day on the job.
Zeledyne’s Tulsa plant, which manufactures automobile and commercial glass, has about 530 employees and the layoffs will apply to hourly and salary workers according to company spokeswoman Della DiPietro.
Zeledyne will be shutting down its second glass-making furnace at the plant. The first was shut down in December. DiPietro said the factory would focus on cutting and processing glass made at Zeledyne’s other plants.
Zeledyne Chairman Robert Price said, “The continuing difficulties in the economy have led to a significant decrease in our commercial glass business, and we have decided to exit this business.”
Zeledyne has been hurt by the decline in the construction industry and lower demand in the automotive market. Even though auto sales have picked up at Ford Motor Co., the commercial construction industry has not regained its footing. DiPietro said sales of architectural glass have declined about 50 percent since the recession began.
The factory opened in 1974 as a segment of Ford and operated under the Ford Glass Plant name until it was spun off from the automaker in 2000 into Visteon Corp. Ford reacquired the company in 2005 before selling it and two other plants — one in Mexico and the other in Nashville, Tenn. — to Price in 2008.
Source: Tulsa World
