Vermeer Manufacturing in Pella is laying off over 400 workers. Company Vice President Kurt Langel made the announcement today.Langel says a downturn in the telecommunications industry is forcing the cutback of 430 office and factory workers. Vermeer makes an underground horizontal drilling machine that’s used to lay fiber cables. The 53-year-old company also makes hay balers, mowers, stump cutters, chippers and tree spades. Vermeer has a worldwide workforce of about three thousand. Langel says the employees being cut will get a severance package.Each employee will get a lump-sum payment of one weeks wages for each year they’ve been on the job. These latest cuts add to 230 employees cut earlier this year, but Langel says Vermeer isn’t ready to close up shop.He says the company’s committed to remaining competitive and has some new products coming out that should boost sales. Vermeer still as some 19-hundred workers remaining on the job in Pella.
