Auto slump deflates Mesa TRW employment

The auto industry's woes have extended to east Mesa where the TRW Automotive plant has cut about 70 positions in the past three months to adjust to fewer air bag orders from customers.

The plant at 11202 E. Germann Road, which makes inflators for the safety devices, has been trying flexible production schedules to avoid more job losses, TRW spokesman John Wilkerson said.

"We are working on creative types of things like shift patterns," he said. "Some product lines that had three shifts we have scaled back to two shifts and 10-hour, four-day-a-week schedules. Not running the plant as much saves some money there."

Also, he said the company is considering extending the annual one-week shutdown at Christmas and New Year's, which could mirror extended holiday shutdowns being contemplated by the major automakers to adjust to market demand.

The Livonia, Mich.-based company continues to employ about 575 workers at the Mesa site.

Wilkerson declined to speculate if further layoffs will be needed, but he said any bankruptcy filings by the large American auto producers would have a major impact on the company.

He said the Big 3's North American operations account for about 22 percent of TRW's business.

"We're not as exposed (to the Big 3) as a number of suppliers ... but at the scale of a GM or Ford or Chrysler declaring bankruptcy, it would have a large effect," he said.

Such a collapse would put the U.S. auto industry, including suppliers like TRW "in uncharted waters," Wilkerson said.

"There are huge stakes here. We are seeing it first-hand from our own suppliers who have been wanting more business from us because their other customers are cutting back."

Wilkerson believes the federal government eventually will be forced to aid the auto industry because of wide repercussions through the economy if nothing is done.

Some of TRW's customers are doing better than others, he said, adding that Honda business has helped the Mesa plant "stay more stable than some of the others."