Published: May 16, 2009 04:26 pm      

Temporary layoffs

We were warned.

Delphi Electronics & Safety confirmed last week it had laid off 120 hourly workers and terminated 80 others. And with its largest customer, General Motors Corp., on a nine-week shutdown and facing bankruptcy, a Delphi spokeswoman said to expect even more.

“Next week through July, there will be significant temporary layoffs as GM does its shutdowns. This will include salaried employees as well,” Delphi’s Linda S. Ferries said Monday.

“With the change in the industry, [layoffs have] been ongoing for the past several years. As we need to respond to our customers’ declining demands, we have to cut back when they don’t need as much of our products.”

Ferries’ description of the coming layoffs as “significant” is cause for concern. But she also called them “temporary.”

Kokomo has been through this before. It will weather a temporary storm.

Continental Steel – the plant that opened as Kokomo Fence Co. in 1896 and employed 5,000 in its heyday – closed as Penn-Dixie Industries in 1986. Yet, Kokomo remained despite the mill’s demise.

Haynes International, a producer of high-performance alloys that started as Haynes Stellite Works in 1912, filed for bankruptcy in 2004. It emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy after little more than five months stronger than before.

Kokomo has been a manufacturing hub for more than 100 years. And in the last century, many factories have opened, and many others have closed.

As we await word of more Delphi layoffs, it’s important to remember many, if not most, of these layoffs will be temporary.