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AK Steel will suspend production at its Rockport Works facilityin Indiana this week.
 
Last week, the Ohio-based company informed the UAW Local 3044 that in conjunction with a one-week idle of almost all operations at its Rockport, Indiana facility, 145 hourly workers would be temporarily laid off as of April 6. The company said it hopes to restart production the following week, but cannot guarantee that this will be the case. Approximately 190 production employees at AK Steel form the UAW Local 3044 at Rockport.
 
This is not the first time AK Steel has idled production as there has been at least one week of halted operations at most of the company's operations in every month since November, excluding March. Back in November, the firm enacted a new program which reuced labor hours and changed schedules in order to keep jobs; it also decreased wages between 10 to 15 percent in order to better face the adverse conditions brought by the global economic crisis.
 
Rockport Works produces flat-rolled carbon and stainless and electrical steels mainly for the automotive, appliance, construction, and electrical power generation and distribution industries.