PORT ANGELES — Westport Shipyard laid off employees at its Port Angeles cabinet shop and its facilities in La Conner last week.
Company officials on Friday declined to say how many workers lost their jobs or provide any other information.
The cabinet shop on 18th Street next to William R. Fairchild International Airport makes the interior woodwork for all of Westport’s yachts.
It employed 274 people as of February. Stacie Kunce, Westport cabinet shop human resources manager, declined to say how many people currently work at the facility.
Westport’s yacht-building plant on Marine Drive — where the firm makes 164-foot yachts that start at about $34 million — employed 299 people in February.
The waterfront yacht-building facility was not listed as having any layoffs.
Economic climate cited
The economic climate “has required Westport to adjust the production line rate to align our production with current market demand,” Bob Ruecker, human resources director for Westport, wrote in a prepared statement after being asked about the layoffs.
“Unfortunately, this reduction in production results in the layoff or termination of some employees at our Port Angeles cabinet shop and La Conner facilities.”
Ruecker also wrote: “We will have no further comment beyond this release.”
Westport General Manager Phil Beirnes said the cabinet shop completed a $1.3 million, 16,500-square-foot expansion last month.
The expansion is intended to result in the hiring of at least 50 more employees, but Beirnes couldn’t confirm if any people had been hired.
He repeatedly referred all questions about the layoffs to Ruecker.
When asked if Westport still intends to hire new workers because of the expansion, Beirnes said: “It depends on what the market does.”
In February, Westport laid off workers at three yacht building facilities in Westport, Hoquiam and La Conner, but the company wouldn’t release any details other than production at each of those three facilities is being lowered by one yacht per year.
The Daily World in Aberdeen, citing Westport employees, reported that between 100 to 120 people in Westport and Hoquiam lost their jobs at that time.
No Westport employee that the Peninsula Daily News spoke with was willing to go on the record about the layoffs this week in Port Angeles.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
