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Car dealership laying off 68 workers
| Wednesday, Jul 2 2008 6:24 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Jul 3 2008 7:17 AM
Three-Way Chevrolet Co. announced layoffs Wednesday of 68 full- and part-time employees — a fifth of its Bakersfield workforce — amid slowing vehicle sales and plans to sell its California Avenue location.
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Managers began notifying affected employees Tuesday that they will be out of a job come Sept. 8, though some were not told until Wednesday and others won’t be told until Thursday, general manager Ted Nicholas said.
The dealership’s decision comes as the auto industry is wrestling with slow sales attributed to high gas prices and tough economic conditions that have crushed consumer credit ratings, making it harder for people to buy cars.
“I think we’re all blessed to have a job at all the way that the auto industry is going,” said Haddad Dodge Kia finance manager Kanon Sawyer, adding that his dealership also laid off mechanics and salespeople a few months ago, only to hire back many of them.
Three-Way’s layoffs were spread across the company’s three large properties in Bakersfield, and hit employees ranging from mechanics and car washers to administrative support personnel and salespeople, Nicholas said.
Although the company has no policy providing for severance packages, he said, the company does plan to work with employment agencies and job-training programs to help laid-off workers find new jobs.
Among those being laid off is Jerry Rodriguez, a 21-year-old vehicle buffer, polisher and detailer who has worked for Three-Way for two years and now earns $10 an hour.
Somehow he was expecting to hear he would be laid off, and was hardly fazed when his suspicions were confirmed Wednesday.
“I ain’t really got that much to lose,” Rodriguez said, explaining that he lives with his parents and has paid off his Toyota Tacoma truck. He said he hopes to land a job with the county Sheriff’s Department or with the City of Bakersfield.
Three-Way vehicle sales are down roughly 20 percent from a year before, Nicholas said. He said the slowdown accounted for only about half the reason for the decision. The other half, he said, results from plans to sell the 10-acre California Avenue site opened in 1969.
Early last month Three-Way confirmed plans to close and sell the California Avenue location as part of a plan to consolidate its Bakersfield operations. The company intends to move some workers to its 14-acre Auto Mall site at 4501 Wible Road, and transfer others to its property off Highway 99 near 7th Standard Road.
Nicholas said he has not been through layoffs of this magnitude in his nine years with Three-Way, and that it has been a difficult process.
“But based on what’s happening with the economy, a contracting economy,” he said, “it’s the right business decision to make at this time.”
Managers at other car dealerships around town sympathized with Three-Way, and said they can only hope to avoid layoffs.
Jim Burke Ford’s used car manager, Richard Gauthier, said the company has not had to let people go lately despite financial pressure to do so.
“We’re just handling it through attrition, natural attrition,” he said. “We’re just not replacing people.”