HUMBOLDT — A production shutdown for 83 of 99 hourly employees at Monarch Cement Co. will start Jan. 22, Walter Wulf Jr., Monarch president, told the Register.
Sixteen employees will remain at work in shipping and plant support.
Wulf said 15 employees furloughed would return to work in five weeks on Feb. 26 and the balance, 68, on March 4, provided no unforeseen circumstances alter the company’s plans.
“Weather and sales have been good this winter and into January,” he added, which has put a positive spin on the return dates for workers laid off. Earlier, the prediction was the shutdown might be as long as eight weeks.
The shutdown is the first since a two-week suspension of production in summer 1983 and it is the first winter layoff since those in 1975 and 1976.
Originally, it was thought the shutdown would occur prior to Christmas, but more sales than expected and maintenance projects delayed it until later this month.
Wulf said earlier those furloughed would qualify for state unemployment benefits and employees who had been with Monarch 15 or more years would have sufficient supplemental unemployment benefits built up with the company to ensure weekly compensation averaging about 80 percent of full pay.
