Kenworth Truck Co. has announced it will lay off 450 temporary workers at its Chillicothe, Ohio plant who were hired to help with a short-term increase in production.

Plant manager Alan Mayne said the company hired the temporary workers about six months ago to handle a surge in orders before the Oct. EPA emissions deadline.
After the layoffs Oct. 25, the plant will cut its production rate from about 70 trucks a day to about 45.
Mayne said the workers knew the employment would be temporary when they were hired.
"It didn't come as a surprise to people, but it was still a huge disappointment," he said.
The plant will employ about 1,100 people after the layoffs.
Meanwhile, the contents of an idled Kenworth Truck manufacturing plant in Tukwila, Wash. are being auctioned off.
A Canadian company started a three-day public auction of the entire contents of the 378,000-square-foot plant earlier this week. On the auction block are metal buildings, forklifts, racks, paint booths, presses, drills, lathes, cranes, tools and office equipment.
What becomes of the property isn't known. Ron Ranheim, treasurer of Kenworth's parent company, Paccar Inc., said the company hasn't stated its intentions for selling or holding onto the land.
The East Marginal Way plant has had an up-and-down existence in the past six years. Production was officially stopped at the plant in 1996, although it was used for parts fabrication.
In 1998, Paccar resumed production of heavy-duty trucks at Tukwila and added small-truck production there. Paccar later opened a new medium-duty manufacturing plant in Quebec, so the Tukwila plant was idled.
In 2001, the plant was used to produce off-highway trucks for export, but that work was shifted to Kenworth's Renton plant at the end of the year.
Paccar has been curtailing production and employment at its larger, more modern Renton facility in the last year, as truck orders slumped.



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