[UPDATE: The Louisiana Workforce Commission announced Oct. 1 that Trinity Marine Products has rescinded the WARN notice originally sent to the commission Aug. 20 to alert it of the closure of Trinity's Brusly plant. Trinity officials now say the company has obtained a contract that will keep the facility open. All 282 employees are expected to be retained. On Oct. 5, however,Trinity Marine confirmed in a subsequent WARN notice that it would close its Madisonville plant. Closing this barge manufacturing facility on the Tchefuncte River will result in 336 layoffs. The company states in the WARN notice that the closure will begin Dec. 4 and is expected to be complete by Dec. 30.]
Trinity Marine Products, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Trinity Industries, says it will shutter its Brusly plant and lay off 283 employees by the end of November.
News of the closure and layoffs came in a required Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification to the state Aug. 20 by plant manager Jerry Matchett, who says closure of the 7555 Choctaw Road facility in West Baton Rouge Parish, about 60 miles from Lafayette, will begin Oct. 23 and should be complete by Nov. 30, the same time frame given for the rounds of layoffs.
"There are no bumping rights [the right of a senior employee to replace a less senior employee in a job for which both are qualified] in this situation and employees should have no expectation of recall," Matchett writes.
According to its website, TMP has six manufacturing facilities on inland waterways in the South and Midwest. Its tank barges carry crude oil, petroleum products, chemicals, fertilizer, ethanol and other liquid cargoes. TMP also manufactures dry cargo barges, including flat-deck and hopper barges that transport a variety of products, such as grain, coal and aggregates.
TMP appears to be another casualty of the downturn in the oil patch. Matchett did not immediately return a phone call placed to his Brusly office.