Despite declining gas prices, Winnebago continues to slump
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November 4, 2008
FOREST CITY - Winnebago Industries officials confirmed Friday that layoffs are continuing at the Forest City-based RV manufacturer, but they once again declined to say how many workers have been let go this week.
“We continue to evaluate the need for additional right-sizing measures in accordance with market demand. That process is ongoing,” Winnebago spokeswoman Kelli Harms said.
Winnebago has been hit hard by the economic slump that has gripped the U.S. in recent months. Although gasoline prices have dropped dramatically in recent weeks, the credit crunch has accelerated the slowdown in motor-home sales.
A number of workers were laid off on Thursday, according to several former employees who did not want their names used in media reports.
Winnebago officials are required to inform Iowa Workforce Development if the company lays off 500 or more employees, and they did not do so this week. But Harms said “we routinely talk with” Iowa Workforce Development offices in Mason City and Des Moines.
Winnebago executives have long held to a policy that they will not comment on rumors, which have been running rampant this past week in Forest City.
Instead, company officials on Friday referred to comments made by Winnebago Chairman of the Board, CEO and President Bob Olson in an Oct. 16 news release in which Olson confirmed that the company had reduced its workforce by 900 full-time hourly and salaried employees since June 1. Included in that reduction was the idling of the Charles City Manufacturing Facility on Aug. 1.
As of Oct. 16, Winnebago had about 1,930 employees.
“We have continued to reduce our head count through attrition and workforce reductions in order to closely match production to the current demand,” Olson said in the news release.
And company officials said Friday that is what the company has done since.
Bob Fenske is editor of the Forest City Summit, a Lee Enterprises newspaper.
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