By Michael Howell
Selway Corporation, Stevensville’s top employer and one of the top employers in Ravalli County, has announced a combination of layoffs and reduction in hours affecting most of the company’s 112 employees. Selway is a locally owned company which has been in the steel fabrication business since 1976. It became employee owned in 1982 and operates on a non-union basis.
According to Randy Osgood, the company’s Operations Manger, the cutbacks preserve 25 full time positions, another 77 employees have been reduced to 20-hour work weeks, and 10 employees were laid off completely.
Osgood said that the demand for steel fabrication on a large scale hit a sharp decline in 2008 to 2010 and has not really recovered. He said timber, coal and hard rock mining operations were a big part of the company’s revenue stream and that’s drying up.
“We started trying to diversify,” said Osgood, “but it takes time to develop those alternatives.”
According to Osgood, they have some bids already out on a few jobs, but it will be months before the process leads to any awards. They are also working on estimates on other jobs that they plan to submit bids on. In the meantime, they are in a crunch. Osgood said they were working with State Senator Fred Thomas and Representative Ed Greef, hoping to get some financial guarantees from the Coal Severance dollars. He said they were also working with Governor Steve Bullock to put together some operational financing.
Osgood said they were working hard to get back up to speed and put people back to work as soon as possible.