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Union official: Local Behr America plant lays off 40

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By Thomas Gnau , Staff Report Updated 9:14 PM Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Dayton’s Behr America Thermal Products plant is laying off about 40 workers, a union official said Tuesday, April 28.

Also, Behr America is welcoming a new president at a time when one of its chief customers, Chrysler, faces an uncertain future.

Heinz-J. Otto has been named president of Behr America, a producer of automotive air-conditioning and engine-cooling systems, effective June 1, the company said today.

Behr Thermal Products’ Dayton facility, on Webster Street, had some 1,500 employees in August 2007. Harry Bogan, a regional director for the International Union of Electronic Workers-Communication Workers of America, which represents the plant’s workers, said the work force stands at about 730 employees — about the number the plant once had on a single shift.

Bogan noted that Chrysler is wrestling with an out-of-court restructuring and, on Monday, GM said it is killing the Pontiac nameplate. In the past, the local Behr plant has served not only Chrysler, but GM, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

“Long-term, that’s going to have a hell of an impact,” Bogan said of Chrysler’s and Pontiac’s situations.

Bogan said Otto’s predecessor, Frank Mueller, resigned.

A spokeswoman for Behr, Indira Sadikovic, said the local plant “constantly adjusts” employee numbers according to market conditions.

“We breathe as the market breathes,” Sadikovic said.

She put the local plant’s employee number at about 800. She said Chrysler and GM remain plant customers.

Behr formed a joint venture with then-Daimler Chrysler in 2002, taking full ownership of the local plant in 2004.

Otto comes to Behr with “extensive senior management experience with major industrial and auto supplier-companies,” Behr said in its announcement.

Otto previously was the chief executive of KSB AG in Frankenthal, Germany. He began his business career with General Electric in 1974 where he went on to be managing director of GE Plastics Germany, general manager of GE Automation and president and CEO of GE Fanuc Automation-Europe.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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