Fargo case plant announces more layoffs

Employees walked into work Thursday to a notice posted saying that 35 workers will be permanently laid off starting March 23rd.

Layoffs are nothing new for Case New Holland; 39 employees were permanently laid off in January.

Over 400 workers at CNH are part of a workers union. A union representative said that many of the workers have been working overtime this week, only to find out about layoffs on Thursday.

The layoffs were a surprise to the workers, and union leaders as well.

"The Machinists Union was surprised to learn of the layoffs today," Jeremy Pearson of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. "There was no previous communication with the company that this was going to be happening."

Pearson also explained that they have lost 52 plants within the last 3 years in the territory and that they worry about this type of thing happening more often.

At this point, the union is focused on those here who are impacted.

"Our heartfelt sympathies go out to everyone who's going to be affected by this layoff because it isn't just the individual workers that are affected," said Pearson. "It's going to be their families. It's going to be their communities. We're going to do everything that we can to be there for them throughout the process."

Employees of CNH said that those who will be impacted are the newest employees and that there's a chance that they may be rehired.

All of this is being blamed on a downturn in the farm economy and the current need for new farm machinery.

We reached out to Case New Holland for comments, but we haven't heard back.