International to close Chatham plant on July 18
WARRENVILLE, Ill. (March 28, 2003) — International Truck and Engine will close its Chatham, Ont., assembly plant on July 18, the company said today, and will shift production of its 9000i model heavy tractors to Mexico.
The company said the plant’s closure, announced last October, was necessary to address “competitive market conditions.”
“We understand that this is not an easy time for anyone affected by this announcement,” said Steve Keate, president of the company’s truck group. “Even though we’ve been talking about this with employees for months, we realize that announcing a date signals the finality of closure. We sincerely thank our Chatham employees for their years of dedicated service of building quality trucks.”
The Chatham plant is currently operating on one shift with approximately 900 employees. In addition to active employees, there are approximately 1,300 union employees on layoff status.
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