Red Wing Shoe Co. intends to cut 60 jobs from its Red Wing plant and close a Kentucky factory because customer demand for work boots has slid as many blue-collar workers lost their jobs in the recession.
At the Red Wing plant, which is unionized, the company will offer early retirement packages to workers, company spokesman Peter Engel said Friday.
"We won't know for another four weeks if we have to have layoff notices for some employees," Engel said. But he emphasized that many workers in Red Wing have 25 to 30 years of service, so layoffs could be avoided if 60 people choose to accept the voluntary early retirement benefits.
The company plans to shutter its Danville, Ky., plant by June and transfer the work that's done there to the two remaining factories in Red Wing and Potosi, Mo.
"We've been running at 60 to 70 percent capacity over the past 12 months" at the three plants, Engel said.
As it consolidates workers in two facilities, the company plans to restore 40-hour workweeks by early next year. Over the next six months, Engel said that about 40 to 50 workers will be added in Missouri. The full workweeks and new hires should keep production at current levels.
In Minnesota and Missouri, employees have been working four-day weeks and a shared work unemployment program allowed workers to earn about 90 percent of their regular paychecks, Engel said.
In Red Wing, the second shift will be eliminated and everybody will work the main shift.
