MIDLAND, Mich. — Nine rail operations employees at The Dow Chemical Co.’s Michigan Operations have been told their jobs will be gone in 30 days.
The group went through “comparative analysis,” in which it must match the cost the company would have if the same work were done by an outside source. The group’s presentation did not close the gap identified by the company.
Rail operations performs the dispatching, washing and minor maintenance needed to ship products to business customers. Dow also uses a truck center and a marine and terminal distribution center; general trucking was outsourced last year.
In early October, Dow announced that seven other work groups did not meet outside bids, affecting 123 positions. Those employees are being moved to other jobs and have six months to choose new permanent positions. If there are too many people in the plant, layoffs would affect the most junior employees.