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MARYSVILLE, Ohio - The March 11 earthquake in Japan might as well have occurred next door to the cluster of auto-assembly plants and suppliers northwest of Columbus.
In this landscape of small towns and cornfields, Honda is the largest employer, and Honda is hurting. Starting late last month, the company cut back to half-shifts because of an interruption of parts shipments from Japan.
For now, the Tokyo-based automaker is giving workers the option to get paid for full shifts by doing extra training or cleaning in the afternoons. Workers and community leaders wonder how long this can last before the crisis overseas begins to put a dent in paychecks here.
"They're being so generous, it's unreal," said Randy Jackson of Marysville, who retired from Honda two years ago. "How many companies would pay (auto workers) to push a broom?"
Honda leaders are proud that they have never had a layoff, and they don't expect to start now.
But most of the company's suppliers, the hundreds of companies that provide parts and services, do not have that luxury. Last week, Newman Technology in Mansfield laid off 130 of its 700 workers, citing the slowdown in orders for exhaust systems from Honda. Others will almost certainly follow.
"If Honda is making half of the cars they were, then the parts suppliers will make half the parts they were," said Peter T. Ward, a professor of management at Ohio State University and a consultant to auto companies. In other words, Honda will not stockpile locally made parts, so the cuts in production will be felt far and wide.
Honda employs about 13,400 people in Ohio, the company says, and auto-parts suppliers employ about 56,000 people serving various automakers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In this landscape of small towns and cornfields, Honda is the largest employer, and Honda is hurting. Starting late last month, the company cut back to half-shifts because of an interruption of parts shipments from Japan.
For now, the Tokyo-based automaker is giving workers the option to get paid for full shifts by doing extra training or cleaning in the afternoons. Workers and community leaders wonder how long this can last before the crisis overseas begins to put a dent in paychecks here.
"They're being so generous, it's unreal," said Randy Jackson of Marysville, who retired from Honda two years ago. "How many companies would pay (auto workers) to push a broom?"
Honda leaders are proud that they have never had a layoff, and they don't expect to start now.
But most of the company's suppliers, the hundreds of companies that provide parts and services, do not have that luxury. Last week, Newman Technology in Mansfield laid off 130 of its 700 workers, citing the slowdown in orders for exhaust systems from Honda. Others will almost certainly follow.
"If Honda is making half of the cars they were, then the parts suppliers will make half the parts they were," said Peter T. Ward, a professor of management at Ohio State University and a consultant to auto companies. In other words, Honda will not stockpile locally made parts, so the cuts in production will be felt far and wide.
Honda employs about 13,400 people in Ohio, the company says, and auto-parts suppliers employ about 56,000 people serving various automakers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
