Honewell Nylon proposes scaling back operations at Virgina plant

Honeywell Nylon Inc. (HNI) today announced the proposed undertaking of three simultaneous actions that would impact its nylon fiber manufacturing facility in Chesterfield County, Va. The company is discussing these proposed actions with the Teamsters Local Union No. 101, which represents the hourly employees at the Chesterfield site.

The proposed actions are the following: First, HNI would discontinue part of its two-step nylon carpet fiber operations located at the Chesterfield plant. This would include all Spinning Building 6 operations and the associated fiber texturizing operations in its Sintex Department. This proposed action would result in the permanent reduction of about 120 positions across the Chesterfield site. With the recent acquisition of BASF’s nylon fibers business, Honeywell Nylon has overlapping fiber manufacturing capability and the flexibility to serve customers from a number of locations. It is no longer economically viable to continue production on some of the older two-step technology at the Chesterfield Plant, when the company has less costly, more efficient one-step processes at other facilities. Proposed timing would be to discontinue the operations by Dec. 14, 2003.