Freightliner LLC is cutting production and laying off employees at four plants.

According to published reports, more than 1,100 employees will be laid off because Class 8 truck sales are off by nearly 46% industry-wide from a year ago. Class 6 and 7 medium-duty sales are down by 21 percent.
At Freightliner's Mount Holly, N.C., plant, 475 of the plant's 1,500 employees are being laid off effective July 9. Production of Freightliner's Business Class trucks built there will drop from 96 to 65 trucks a day.
Also effective July 9, Freightliner will lay off 284 employees out of 864 at a plant outside of Mexico city, where heavy-duty and medium-duty trucks are built.
In August, 181 employees will be cut at the St. Thomas, Ontario, plant where Sterling trucks are built. Production will drop from 66 trucks a day to 55.
Production of Western Star trucks built in Kelowna, British Columbia, will be cut from 15 trucks a day to nine and a half, effective Oct. 8, with 180 of the plant's 853 people losing their jobs.
The latest layoffs are in addition to about 8,000 people laid off since the truck market started taking a dive in late 1999.