Some of the workers at the plants, which make skid steer loaders and other construction equipment, got word of the layoffs as they prepared to start their shift Monday, a state labor official said.
The layoffs include 134 workers at Bobcat’s Gwinner plant and 112 at the Bismarck plant, union and city officials said.
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North Dakota AFL-CIO President Dave Kemnitz said the Bismarck workers were notified at 2:30 p.m. Monday, a half hour before the start of one of the shifts. They were told the layoffs are indefinite, possibly extending to early next year, he said.
Kemnitz said union officials plan to file a grievance over the company’s failure to follow proper procedures. Bobcat should have given workers more notice or asked for voluntary layoffs, he said, calling the company’s action unfair and unprecedented.
“How do 112 families — how do they plan with no prior notice?” Kemnitz said. “These families have been devastated with economic shock, for how long? Who knows?”
In Gwinner, city auditor Jeff Anderson said union workers told city officials that 134 workers were being laid off but would retain the right to be the first ones called back.
“It’s all based on the current orders coming in and the rate of production they need to fill the orders,” he said.
Kemnitz said estimated the latest layoffs amount to at least a fourth of Bobcat’s work force in Bismarck.
Bobcat employs about 2,000 people at the two plants. Union officials in Gwinner could not be reached for comment.
Bobcat, owned by South Korea’s Doosan Infracore Co., has been hit hard by the recent national and worldwide economic turmoil.
Workers at the North Dakota plants returned to their jobs in February after an eight-week layoff, only to learn the plants would be shut down for part of March .
Jeremy Bauer, who heads Bismarck United Local Steelworkers Union 566, said the layoffs announced Monday could last until the first quarter of 2010, but he considers them definite.
“You’ve got people that are going to be out until April. They’re not going to just sit around and wait to see if their job is there in April,” Bauer told The Bismarck Tribune. “They’re (Bobcat) just circumventing the procedure.”
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