Bridgestone Announces Layoffs At LaVergne Manufacturing Plant

More than 150 Bridgestone workers in LaVergne, Tennessee will be laid off four days before Christmas. Nashville-based Bridgestone Firestone U.S.A. told workers that the current economy has decreased demand for passenger car and light truck tires. As a result, the company is letting 158 of the 17-hundred workers at the Rutherford County plant go. Additional layoffs are possible by mid-2009 if the company entirely eliminates car and light truck tire production at its LaVergne plant. It also produces heavy truck and bus tires. Sales of both are also being affected by the recession.