Layoff notices go out at Columbia Lighting

Workers say Columbia Lighting handed layoff notices to an estimated 35 to 50 people Friday morning, a move widely anticipated as sales remain sluggish.

Some workers believe the layoffs are part of an effort by Columbia’s parent company, Hubbell Inc., to restructure its lighting division by moving work to lower-cost factories.

Others say the layoffs are strictly related to sales figures that haven’t met targets.

“It’s confusing,” said John Wilson, a company driver who worked at Columbia Lighting for 18 years and who was laid off on Friday.

“They say it’s because of a lack of work, yet we know that the company is moving product lines out of here and trying to do more in Mexico.”

The layoffs were based on seniority and several employees were visibly upset outside the Spokane Valley plant Friday. Some employees said they were worried about finding work with similar pay and good benefits, which include health insurance.

The assembly and machining jobs at Columbia are covered under a labor agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 73. Union officials didn’t return telephone messages left Friday.

Other jobs are covered by the Teamsters, and many more are considered administrative, such as sales and marketing.

Company managers declined to comment on the layoffs.

Worries that big changes are coming to the Spokane factory, however, have been growing for weeks.

Columbia Lighting, purchased by Connecticut-based Hubbell three years ago, has been a Spokane business fixture for more than a century.

However, Hubbell is in the latter stages of an $80 million corporate plan designed to boost production and cut costs.

Called the “Lighting Business Integration and Streamlining Program,” Hubbell is consolidating its lighting division management to a new headquarters office in South Carolina and moving more manufacturing work to Mexico.

According to a quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday, the company’s transition of more work to low-cost counties affected 520 employees during the first three months of 2005.

“The workload is down and we aren’t told much,” said Olton Gains, a 12-year employee who was not laid off.

Another employee said it may be premature to blame the layoffs on the company’s stated strategy of moving more manufacturing to Mexico.

Employment has fluctuated for years at the factory.

Previously, a company spokesman said there were no stated plans to close the Spokane plant.

Hubbell executives also earlier blamed company layoffs on a product price hike that some customers rejected. Furthermore, a construction slowdown was blamed for slack demand.

Add it to the rising price of metals used to make lighting fixtures, and Hubbell has had to tighten cost controls.

Company executives told analysts in April that sales are expected to rebound this year enough to offset disappointing early-year results.

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