Goulds Pumps in Auburn is continuing a series of layoffs begun three months ago as workers were informed on Tuesday that more layoffs were ahead, according to an employee and a union official.

According to a manufacturing worker at the plant off Route 326 on Wright Avenue, Jeremy Hergert, team leader Richard Spingler informed workers that sales have been down 30 percent for the past three or four months and the downturn is expected to continue until 2010.

Over the past three months, 24 people in the residential pump factory have been laid off, eliminated, or lost through attrition. Nineteen were laid off since mid-October and 13 more positions, six hourly and seven salaried, were shaved off this week, resulting in a loss of 35 out of more than 250 jobs at that plant, according to Goulds spokesman Tom Glover.

Gary Watkins, president of Union Local 3298, said in January 2008, the Auburn plant employed about 225 but there will only be about 175 manufacturing jobs shortly, he said.

The Auburn plant has five focus factories, Watkins said, and the people being laid off are those who have worked there five years or less.

“I would expect more layoffs in January,” Watkins said.

He explained that many workers are now on vacation for the holidays so that the plant is short on manpower, but in January, when they return, that will change.

“Like every other company we've been affected by a weakened global economy,” Glover said, “so we've had to make sure that our business is appropriately sized. Based on current conditions, there are no immediate plans for further cuts in the workforce in Auburn.”

The Auburn plant produces pumps for residential wells, commercial pumps and pumps for sewage as well as jet pumps for car washes. Watkins said that production in this division relies heavily on the housing market and has been affected by the slump in the American market.

“Our major market is in North America,” Watkins said.

Manufacturing employees average about $40,000 a year plus another $7,000 in benefits.

Workers were informed a couple of months ago that sales were down by $1.5 million.

“That got us on the radar,” Hergert said. Goulds' layoff policy allows for an eight-hour period to “bump” another worker, Watkins said. Those laid off have recall rights for two years.

Goulds is planning to ship a whole department of submersible pumps to Nanjing, China, Watkins said.

“Eighty percent of the Red Jacket Pumps line will be made in NanJing, China,” Watkins confirmed, although he said that transition has not yet taken place. Submersible pumps are used for residential wells.

Meanwhile, the Goulds plant in Seneca Falls is on the upswing for making commercial pumps.

“We can't make enough for what's needed,” Watkins said.

He added that if a job opens in the commercial factory, it could be filled by a union worker from the residential plant without much difficulty.

The Seneca Falls plant has a totally different customer base, and China is a big buyer, Watkins said.

“Hopefully some of the guys laid off in Auburn can apply for jobs in Seneca Falls,” he said.