By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
In continued efforts to reduce its workforce in response to lagging shipments, Norandal USA will lay off an additional 22 hourly employees effective Sunday.
Norandal USA produces rolls of aluminum foil used in heating and air-conditioning, packaging and printing applications. Its Salisbury plant is located along Jake Alexander Boulevard near Old Concord Road.
The plant employed about 240 people a year ago before the company began downsizing personnel, both salaried and hourly workers.
Tom Rugg, human resources manager for the Salisbury plant, said the expected workforce will eventually be 132 hourly workers and 31 salaried, for a 163 total.
Norandal will still rank among the top 35 companies in Rowan County in the number of employees.
The company has had to use attrition, buyout incentives and layoffs as part of its “right sizing,” Rugg said in an e-mail Monday.
Norandal’s salaried workforce has decreased from 50 employees in August 2007 to 31 employees now, Rugg said. The plant will have an hourly workforce of about 140 by the end of September.
For those who will be laid off effective Sunday, the company will hold a voluntary meeting at 9 a.m. Monday to explain available benefits. The meeting will include representatives from the Employment Security Commission and several United Way agencies.
Rugg said the company also has petitioned state and federal governments for additional benefits for the laid-off workers through Trade Adjustment Assistance funding. Those monies are allocated if job losses are related to increased foreign competition.
“We have lost a great deal of desirable heavy-gauge foil business due to downturns in the automotive and housing industries,” Rugg said, “and as a result of increased imports of aluminum foil.”
Planned shipments are down significantly from prior years, he added.