WAYNESBORO, PA. -- Manufacturing jobs in Franklin County continued to fall Friday when Waynesboro-based manufacturer Johnson Controls, formerly known as the Frick Co., cut 15 more jobs, reducing its work force by about 3 percent.
Darryll Fortune, global director of public relations for Johnson Controls, said slow market conditions are to blame for the reduction.
The company has been a staple in the Waynesboro community since the 1850s as one of the town's three major manufacturing anchors.
Today, the plant produces compressors, controls and packaged systems for the industrial refrigeration and natural gas compression markets.
Like many manufacturers, Johnson Controls is under increasing pressure to continually reduce costs, Fortune said.
"The global economic downturn has resulted in an unprecedented decline in production," he said.
Fortune said about 515 people still are employed by the CV Avenue facility, 55 fewer people than in December 2008.
None of the men and women laid off Friday were union employees, said Todd Scott, president of UAW Local 1296, the bargaining unit for employees at Johnson Controls in Waynesboro.