Swisher International Inc. executive Lee Creasman said Thursday the company intends to lay off about 150 employees at the Springfield area cigar plant over the next month to six weeks.
“We still have almost 800 here at our Jacksonville facility, which is a viable, booming facility, but we made these layoffs to react to demands and competition,” said Creasman, senior vice president of human resources.
He also referred to higher taxes on tobacco products. “As a result of that, there has been a decline in demand for our products,” he said.
Creasman said Swisher will be importing some of its products from a company in the Dominican Republic.
According to Creasman, Swisher announced the layoff decision Tuesday to the unions that represent the employees. He said 30 were mechanics who work on the machinery and 120 are production and support workers.
Creasman said the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local represents the mechanics and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union represents the production workers.
He said the company will work with those unions. “Under the union contract, employees have the right to bid on other jobs,” he said.
In July 2009, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union reported on its website that the 650 workers who produce cigars at Swisher in Jacksonville had a new three-year contract with wage and benefit increases.
It said the contract included wage increases of 4 percent the first year, and 3.5 percent the second and third years. In addition, a cost-of-living premium added an extra 10-cent per hour increase each year of the contract.
It also announced increases in monthly pension benefits, an improved health coverage plan and improved life insurance benefits. “Having the workers united is what helped us produce such a strong contract during rough economic times,” said Local 531 President Cynthia Steele in that report.
Swisher operates in Springfield, north of Downtown, at 459 E. 16th St. During a tour in August, plant executives told a Daily Record reporter that the company, which is the country’s largest cigar exporter rolls, labels, packs and ships out up to 14 million products a day.
The seller of a third of the nation’s cigars, Swisher International Inc. traces its history to 1861 in Ohio, when merchant David Swisher received a small cigar factory as a debt settlement.
His grandson, Carl, moved the operations to Jacksonville in 1924, where it makes Swisher Sweets, the No. 1 brand of cigars in the country. Last fall, plant executives said it employed about 1,100 workers.
Swisher, known historically for its famous King Edward cigars, has grown its product lines through acquisition and invention. The King Edward Cigar was introduced in 1918.
The plant encompasses more than 600,000 square feet of space and takes up about five blocks. The products are distributed from a warehouse at the Jacksonville International Tradeport.
Swisher makes smokeless products at a plant in Wheeling, Va.
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