(The Youngstown Vindicator posted the following story on its website on May 15.)
AUSTINTOWN, Ohio — YSD Industries has started recalling some of the 70 workers who have been laid off over the past few months.
Company officials have been working to increase sales despite a slowdown that forced the layoffs, said Jack Jones, director of human resources.
Fourteen workers who had been laid off returned to work this week, and seven others will come back next week.
The workers are needed because YSD has received orders for train roofs, which are more labor-intensive than train doors, another product the company commonly makes, Jones said. The Henricks Road company makes a variety of railroad equipment.
Jones said YSD had about 200 workers before the layoffs started.
Two months ago, the company issued a notice of a potential plant closing required under federal law. Jones said the law required the notice because YSD intended to lay off one-third of its workers, not because it was shutting down.
He blamed the national economy’s slowdown and the strength of competition for the company’s lower order volume.
The company used to be known as Youngstown Steel Door and employed 2,000 people in the early 1970s. The name was changed in 1988 when the management team bought the company from its Cleveland-based owners.