Marion TV plant lays off 335

Marion, Ind. -- Thomson Multimedia said it will lay off 335 employees at its television tube plant here because of falling orders for the large tubes made at the sprawling factory.\nIn addition to the layoffs that take effect on Monday, most workers will see their work week reduced from five to four days over the next 13 weeks.\nLast week, France-based Thomson laid off 75 employees at the plant, which employs 1,640 people.\nCompany spokesman Richard Knoph said Friday that if the tube business picks up, Thomson will bring back as many workers as necessary. The Marion plant makes 25- to 27-inch television picture tubes, mainly for non-Thomson products.\n"We are not exiting the 25- and 27-inch tube business in Marion," Knoph said. "This is one of the most competitive businesses in the world."\nThe layoffs include 295 hourly workers and 40 salaried employees, in the 25- and 27-inch production line. The hourly workers, who are represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1160, earn an average of $13.82 per hour.\nProduction lines for 32-inch and larger tubes are not affected by the cuts, Knoph said. The plant is Thomson's only manufacturing facility in Indiana.\nPlant manager Scott Zakrajsek said manufacturing effectiveness and quality have improved steadily since he took over 2 1/2 years ago, especially the quality of the plant's 31-inch and above products.\n"We haven't given up on the market conditions shifting. Both internally and externally the company hasn't given up on the Marion plant," Zakrajsek said Friday.\nKnoph said the plant's equipment used in the manufacturing of the 25- and 27-inch picture tubes will not be dismantled, although production will be drastically reduced.\nIn addition to the layoffs, effective Monday, Thomson will cut back to a four-day work week in the base plant, affecting around 850 workers.\nSince 1995, Thomson has invested more than $100 million here, much of it to refurbish the base plant and buy equipment for the manufacture of VLS products.\nThe Marion plant employs about half as many workers as it did a little over a decade ago -- 1,305 after the latest layoffs, compared to about 2,250 in the early '90s.\nThomson has closed large plants in recent years, most recently in Scranton, Penn., where 1,070 employees lost their jobs when operations were moved to Mexico in 2001.\nAnd in 1998, the company laid off 1,100 employees at its Bloomington plant and moved operations to Juarez, Mexico.