WEATHERSFIELD — Howmet Aerospace will lay off almost one quarter of its 600 workers at its Warren Avenue manufacturing facility, the result of a downturn in business brought on by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

A company spokesman confirmed Thursday the layoffs will impact 131 hourly and salary positions through layoff, attrition and voluntary retirement.

“The difficult but necessary decision to reduce staff at Howmet Aerospace in Niles comes as result of reduced demand from our aerospace customers, which is related to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aviation industry,” company spokesman Paul Erwin wrote in an email.

“The location will continue to review customer demand to determine staffing needs. We have always valued, and continue to value, the contributions of all our staff and deeply regret the need for this action,” he wrote.

The layoffs will happen Saturday through July 31.

Formerly Arconic, Pittsburgh-based Howmet spun off from Arconic Inc. in early April and is the engineered products and forgings side of the former company, including engine products, fastening systems, engineered structures and forged wheels.

MLive in Michigan reported in June that Howmet laid off 625 workers of nearly 3,000 employed at multiple castings plants in Whitehall in west central Michigan. About half of the layoffs were voluntary, temporary layoffs, permitted through unionized workers’ collective bargaining agreement, that were likely to become permanent, according to the company’s filing with the state,

MLive reported.

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VINDY REFER LINE:

about 30,000 laid-off Ohioans last week filed for jobless benefits, pushing the state’s total in the past 18 weeks to more than 1.5 million as the viral outbreak continues to punish Ohio’s economy, B1.

Howmet plans layoffs

Cuts due to lost business during viral outbreak

MLive reported.

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