Marathon Cheese lays off one-sixth of its workforce

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Marathon Cheese, shown here in the file photo, expects the layoffs to only be temporary.

The city's Marathon Cheese packing plant temporarily laid off more than 50 of its employees earlier this month as the company deals with the slumping U.S. economy.

"This is nothing unusual in our industry," said a company spokesperson, who asked not to be identified. "This is definitely a short-term type of layoff, and we are continuing to review applications and interview people."

It was the first significant layoff of employees at the plant since it opened in January of 2007.

The company remains committed to the people of Mountain Home and will continue its efforts to increase its workforce here once conditions permit, the spokesperson said.

See the Mountain Home News for the complete story.

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Wish they would've based it on work ethic and production instead of who's been there less than 5 months. Some hard workers got canned over people with poor work ethic who show up late, etc. Doesn't seem right.

-- Posted by myhiveoffive on Wed, Sep 30, 2009, at 9:05 AM
If you had to lay people off...why waste people's time with interviews...when you had to lay people off? Sounds just like the deal with AEHI and their "job fair." We see how many jobs came from that load of Donny bull.

-- Posted by OpinionMissy on Wed, Sep 30, 2009, at 1:41 PM
OM:

My what it must be living in your own little perfect world!

-- Posted by mtnhomeguy09 on Wed, Sep 30, 2009, at 5:03 PM
OM,

The interviews might be going on so that they can fill spots for those that were layed off and got employment elsewhere. I have been through this process before and that is what the company did. So they are not wasting people's time, they seem to be preparing for the future of the company. It is a simple business practice.

-- Posted by B Mullen on Wed, Sep 30, 2009, at 5:28 PM
To those of you who are trying to move on to other topics besides the WECRD, thank you. It's refreshing.

But to the rest of you who feel like you must use this board to drone on and on about the same thing over and over, listen up.

We just lost 50 jobs in this community and if any of you think for one minute that those jobs are coming back some day, I have a site for a nuclear power plant near the Snake River I'd like to sell you.

-- Posted by homedog on Fri, Oct 2, 2009, at 7:41 PM
OG, we will agree to disagree on this one. The chances of those people (from Marathon) finding other jobs are few. Slim pickings these days...unless you want to work for minimum wage in Boise. I feel for anybody out of work right now. It is a tough market with no end near.

-- Posted by OpinionMissy on Sat, Oct 3, 2009, at 7:06 PM
This strikes pretty close to home for me, as I worked at the Idahoan Foods Plant in Glenns Ferry which was subsequently sold to IDO Foods and then shut down a couple years ago. I was forced to move out of the area to find work, but those that stayed, a good number of them got jobs at this company. To get layed off again just 2 years later, after their unemployment benifits already ran out the last time.. Well it just seems rather tragic to me and my prayers are with them all.

-- Posted by sparkle_sprite on Sun, Oct 4, 2009, at 12:37 PM

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