Kohler To Lay Off 90 In Engines Division: Report

KOHLER, WI — Citing an economic slowdown that impacted parts of their company across the U.S., the Kohler Corporation has announced they will be laying off 90 workers in their Engines Division.

According to a mass layoff notice submitted by the company with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development on Friday, a total of 90 workers will be permanently laid off. Company officials said the layoff notice has been already served to employees who have the lowest seniority in the Engines Division.

Company officials announced the relocation of a key assembly line at their Kohler engines manufacturing plant in Kohler to a new plant in Hattiesburg Mississippi. The announcement was made in Sept. 2018.

Since then, the company has worked to open up job opportunities for these workers at other Kohler locations, and did not need to lay any workers off due to the assembly line change, company officials said in the letter.

What makes this announcement different, Kohler officials said, was a company slowdown over the last 14 months that is related to slowdowns in specific sectors of the U.S. economy.

In the mass layoff letter, Kohler officials said these slowdowns impacted the number of open positions in other company divisions. The final relocation of the key assembly line will now begin in January 2020, company officials stated.

Among the layoffs will be 46 assembly set up operators, 25 engine machine set-up operators, 11 service parts material handlers, five engine material handlers, two engine inspectors and one engine support position.