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With the holiday season right around the corner, Hubbell Lighting has announced that it plans to lay off 39 hourly employees in the upcoming weeks at its Christiansburg plant.
The company informed employees last week of the expected layoffs, which will nearly eliminate the second shift at its Christiansburg plant. It had originally been announced that the layoffs would affect between 25 and 50 hourly employees. Five salaried employees were laid off last week. Penny Franklin, president of the Local 82160 of the International Union of Electronic/Communications Workers of America, told EverythingNRV.com Thursday night that 50 people were laid off at the beginning of the year and 17 were laid off this time last year. "Right now we have between 280 and 290 employees compared to around 370 this time last year," said Franklin. Franklin went on to say that the layoffs are expected to start Monday. "The economy is affecting our business, just like everyone's elses," said Franklin. "We knew in advance about these layoffs, but you still hate to see them come." As for how the layoffs will be handle, Franklin has no idea at this time. "Things are very confusing right now and the company has been balking at our requests to meet with us on the layoff issues," added Franklin. Management at the local plant referred all questions to their human resources department in Greenville, S.C. Those calls were not returned Thursday afternoon. EverythingNRV will be following this developing story and will post further updates as they become available.
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