Layoffs

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania's state and local governments would be forced to lay off a combined 12,500 public employees, including teachers, police officers and firefighters, if Congress doesn't send the state more recession-related aid, Gov. Ed Rendell warned Tuesday. The Democratic governor has taken the lead in recent weeks to rally support for the federal bill, scheduled for a key Senate vote Wednesday. Republicans oppose the measure, saying the price tag would add to the nation's growing debt.

Oshkosh Corp. layoffs announced this week will not affect the Wisconsin-based manufacturer's JLG plant in Fulton County, Pa., a corporate spokesman said Wednesday. Oshkosh Corp.'s defense division plans to reduce its workforce by 900 positions, according to a news release. Spokesman John Daggett said those layoffs will affect employees in Wisconsin, not Pennsylvania. The corporation cited decreased demand for military vehicles as the reason for layoffs continuing into the summer.

Letterkenny Army Depot this week is completing layoffs of 244 contracted employees as announced in January, a depot spokeswoman said. The layoffs occurring this week are not associated with the federal budget cuts known as the sequester, according to depot spokeswoman Lindsay Bryant. Instead, demand decreased for an Army Humvee program, Bryant said. “The workforce was resized to meet the workload,” she said. The depot, which employs up to 4,000 people, is anticipating additional layoffs and furloughs related to the sequester.

As part of a major reorganization to cut costs, the Review and Herald Publishing Association south of Hagerstown informed several employees Monday they would be laid off, reassigned or have their salaries cut, an association spokesman said. "We've been facing massive financial losses for the past several years," spokesman Kim Peckham said Monday. Projected financial losses for this year are $2.4 million, according to an association news release. Peckham said the association was not in danger of defaulting to creditors.

In a move that some say will hurt students, the Washington County Board of Education plans to cut 27 part-time teacher aide positions this fall because of budget constraints. Letters went out Friday to the elementary school employees who are part of the Title I federal grant program, warning them of temporarily layoffs. School officials are hoping to place many, if not all, of the displaced instructional assistants in vacant positions that become available throughout the school system.

Unilever informed government officials that layoffs at its Hagerstown ice cream plant are expected to begin this fall and the plant will officially close in August 2013, a Washington County economic development official said Monday night. The Good Humor-Breyers Ice Cream plant on Frederick Street employs about 440 people, said Timothy Troxell, executive director of the Hagerstown-Washington County Economic Development Commission. Unilever North American Ice Cream officials did not have a schedule for how many employees would be laid off during the next two years, Troxell said.

WASHINGTON COUNTY - Layoffs at Volvo Powertrain North America's Washington County plant this year have been less than the company predicted last fall. In October, Volvo Powertrain announced it would cut 600 jobs, or about one-third of the work force, because of an imminent slump in the market. As of Monday, though, the company had trimmed far fewer jobs - about 340 - through a combination of temporary and permanent moves. Volvo Trucks North America spokesman Jim McNamara said last year's estimate of cutting 600 jobs was a "worst-case" projection.

McCONNELLSBURG, PA. - A continuing slump in the market for construction equipment is the reason JLG Industries will cut 220 positions in North America next month, according to company officials. Last week, JLG announced layoffs affecting 220 people in its McConnellsburg, Bedford and Shippensburg facilities in Pennsylvania, along with plants in Orrville, Ohio, and Oakes, N.D., Vice President for Global Marketing Kirsten Skyba said Friday. The new round of reductions will take effect Oct. 3 and are considered "indefinite" in that they could be permanent unless and until market conditions change, Skyba said.

About 60 people have taken voluntary layoffs this year from the Volvo Powertrain plant on Pennsylvania Avenue north of Hagerstown, said Cynthia Gagliardi, manager of communications for Volvo Powertrain North America. The layoffs came from the manufacturing sector, Gagliardi said. The Volvo Powertrain plant produces Volvo and Mack heavy-truck engines and Mack transmissions. "No permanent layoffs have happened yet," Gagliardi said. Business has slowed industrywide as the demand for heavy trucks recently declined, she said.

Oshkosh Corp. layoffs announced this week will not affect the Wisconsin-based manufacturer's JLG plant in Fulton County, Pa., a corporate spokesman said Wednesday. Oshkosh Corp.'s defense division plans to reduce its workforce by 900 positions, according to a news release. Spokesman John Daggett said those layoffs will affect employees in Wisconsin, not Pennsylvania. The corporation cited decreased demand for military vehicles as the reason for layoffs continuing into the summer.

Letterkenny Army Depot this week is completing layoffs of 244 contracted employees as announced in January, a depot spokeswoman said. The layoffs occurring this week are not associated with the federal budget cuts known as the sequester, according to depot spokeswoman Lindsay Bryant. Instead, demand decreased for an Army Humvee program, Bryant said. “The workforce was resized to meet the workload,” she said. The depot, which employs up to 4,000 people, is anticipating additional layoffs and furloughs related to the sequester.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey announced concerns Thursday about a defense bill recently passed by the House of Representatives that includes a provision he says could dramatically affect operations and prompt layoffs at Letterkenny Army Depot north of Chambersburg. “The House bill would cut more than $2 billion from various depot accounts, essentially preventing Pennsylvania's depots from continuing to upgrade equipment currently in use by service members around the world,” Casey, D-Pa., said in a news release.

Plans to lay off eight Chambersburg Fire Department firefighters July 1 were put on hold Monday by a unanimous vote of the Chambersburg Borough Council. The council and administrators are hoping a federal grant will be awarded to save the jobs. “The grants are extremely competitive, but we are working diligently on the matter,” Solicitor G. Bryan Salzmann wrote in a memo presented at Monday's council meeting. Borough Manager Jeffrey Stonehill said he could not immediately recall the amount being requested in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFER grant application.

What looked to be a simple funding shift affecting Washington County's public-school nursing program turned into a fiasco because of a poor job of communication on the parts of all concerned. County Administrator Greg Murray blamed Washington County Health Department leadership, which he said “made it a crisis” by sending out layoff notices to 76 school nurses after the Washington County Board of Commissioners voted to cut funding to the health department that paid for the program.

Washington County Administrator Gregory B. Murray said Tuesday night that there was a plan in place for Washington County Public Schools to pick up funding for a school nursing program if the county had to pay a portion of teacher pensions. Speaking to standing-room-only crowd of 65 people gathered at Smithsburg Town Hall, Murray said the plan was designed to allow for a seamless continuation of the school nursing program. He said county officials were shocked when the Washington County Health Department began sending layoff notices to all 76 school nurses last week.

The Washington County Health Department on Thursday began sending layoff notices to all 76 nurses and other health care workers at county public schools, two days after county commissioners voted to cut funding for the program, a health department official said. Washington County Public Schools Superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Thursday night that the layoff notices seem premature, but he didn't know the policies and procedures under which the health department has to operate.

Labor conditions for teachers in Jefferson County Schools have improved considerably, the district superintendent said Tuesday. In January, the Jefferson County Board of Education notified 66 employees that they were being placed on a Reduction In Force list to cover part of a $5 million budget shortfall. The news sent clouds of worry among employees whose names were on the list. It also drew the support of fellow workers whose jobs were not in peril, concerned parents and students.

A month ago, the jobs of 33 teachers and 12 service employees in Jefferson County Schools were in jeopardy in the face of a projected $5.3 million budget shortfall stemming from significant drops in state aid, student enrollment and taxable income from foreclosures and dwindling property values. This week, the Jefferson County Board of Education cut the number of threatened positions down to 29, Superintendent Susan K. Wall said Tuesday. The board, following a new state law, had to notify any employee whose position was put on a Reduction in Force, or RIF, list by Feb. 1. Until the new law took effect this year, such employees didn't have to be have to be notified until April 1, Wall said.

Chastity Plaza, a special education teacher at Shepherdstown Middle School, might lose her job this year because she's four months shy of earning her second master's degree. Plaza's name is on a list of 33 teachers in Jefferson County Schools who have been notified that their contracts might end this year because of declining revenues totaling $5.3 million over the last four years. Twelve school service personnel also are on the Reduction in Force (RIF) list. They are among 66 of the district's least-tenured school employees, professional and service personnel, who could lose their jobs, four days of pay a year or stipends for supervising extra-curricular activities.