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It was a shaky 2008 for Cirrus Design with at least 200 layoffs and 500 furloughed employees in Duluth and Grand Forks. Cirrus administrators are holding a meeting on Thursday to discuss the company's status going into 2009.
Cirrus would not say whether or not more layoffs are in store for the company, but one administrator says there will be major staffing changes.
Cirrus Design CEO Brent Wouters sent a memo to employees on Monday regarding a mandatory staff meeting to discuss the company's current situation. Despite a lot of unknowns, Vice President of Business Administration Bill King says one thing is certain: there will be "huge internal staffing changes."
"If the market conditions continue to soften, and they certainly could, you know for the first quarter or two of the year here, then we're going to need to be thoughtful about how we respond to that as well. We certainly can't allow the business to get put into a situation where we can't sustain it."
The memo also says Cirrus had expected all furloughed employees to return to work this month, but production is still down due to decreased demand. As a result, the memo says additional staffing changes are required.
"There's no question as we continue to weather the current marketplace and the current conditions...it just by definition will drive changes in employment up and down over the course of the year."
King says Cirrus has some new developments in the works and is cautiously optimistic about 2009, but the grim economic situation casts a shadow of uncertainty.
"It's just impossible for anybody, especially in these tough economic conditions and times, to be able to really say with any kind of certainty where all of the different pieces are going to fall out during the year."
Cirrus has plants in both Duluth and Grand Forks. It's unclear at this point how much either location would be affected by any changes.
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