VOLVO CLOSING

Vice President and General Manager Jay Davis says the decision has been made for Volvo to exit Goderich Facilities no later than 2010.

The business from the Goderich plant will be consolidated with operations in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.

The news was first given to workers this morning (Tues) at 8:00 at the Knights of Columbus Hall.

In total, 335 hourly and 165 salary workers who will lose their jobs.

Davis says there will be discussions with the union, and they will be taking a look at pensions, benefits and severance.

It was announced last week that the plant would be laying off 46 production workers.

Davis says those layoffs had nothing to do with the announced closure - they were strictly related to market conditions.

Even though the closure has been announced, employees are still asked to show up for work.

Davis says with the exception of those given layoff notices last week, nobody is under notice of employment  termination.

Production will be moved in stages and other functions will have specific transition plans that will be shared as soon as possible.

Any employment termination related to this move will be preceded with a three month notice period.

Davis says the transition schedule is currently being prepared and will be discussed with the union to ensure that Volvo can continue to provide quality and delivery to their customers.

He says employees may chose to leave at any time, but it should be noted that if they leave before their notice period ends, it could effect their severance package.

-------------ADDITIONAL INFO---------------

There will be counselors set up throughout Goderich until at least the end of the week if workers feel the need to talk to somebody.

Today (Tues) until 11:30 there will be one counselor in the lounge room at the Knights of Columbus Hall and one at the Goderich Museum until 5pm in the 2nd floor meeting room.

There will also be 3 counselors set up until 5pm today in training rooms 6, 7 and 8 at the Volvo main plant in Goderich.

Tomorrow (Tues) until Friday, there will be counselors at the Main plant and the Customer Support building from 7:30am-10:30am and 2:30pm-5:30pm.

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