Reynolds American Inc. has started cutting jobs at its plant in Tobaccoville, a union representative said Tuesday.
John Price, an international representative of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, said he heard from plant workers that some people were laid off Tuesday.
"They sounded very depressed," he said. "Their exact words were, "This morning was a bad, bad day.' "
Maura Payne, a company spokeswoman, said she could not comment on operations because Reynolds American does not make announcements prior to releasing its earnings. It plans to release year-end earnings today.
Price said he was told that factory service positions that fall into certain labor grades and some operators and mechanics are losing their jobs.
"I'm also hearing that there are some people with 35 years seniority being let go," he said.
Price was told that the cuts were based on employees' last evaluations and not their seniority.
He does not know a total count of job cuts but expects more information after an 8 a.m. employee meeting today. The company has about 2,500 people in its local workforce.
Reynolds said last month that it was conducting its fourth business analysis in the past 3½ years. The past four times the company did this type of analyses, a combined 2,705 local jobs were eliminated.
Payne said last month that the result of the analysis will be job cuts among the salaried and manufacturing workforce at the parent company, RAI Services, and several departments of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. She said subsidiaries American Snuff and Santa Fe Tobacco, as well as R.J. Reynolds field trade marketing operations, were not part of the analysis.
She said last month that the company expected to complete the analysis and announce the number of affected employees by March 31. The company expected voluntary and involuntary job cuts for salaried employees but had not determined if it would require involuntary manufacturing job cuts.
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