January 21, 2009 (WALB) - Some Cooper Tire employees have decided not to wait for the inevitable, many have agreed to take the company's offer an volunteer to be the first laid off.
Cooper officials say they're compiling a list of Albany employees who have agreed to participate in the company's early release program and will be among the first group terminated. While company officials didn't want to say how many had signed up, WALB News Ten has learned the number could be in the hundreds. Already 25 Cooper employees have signed up for classes at Albany Technical College and the school expects more.
"We've added some additional courses and sections to our B term for winter and we expect to see some increase in enrollment there. We also expect to see additional students enrolled on our online courses, but we expect to have even more student come for our spring quarter which starts in April," said Dr. Anthony Parker, Albany Technical College President.
Dr. Parker encourages those who will be looking for new employment once the plant closes not to wait until the last minute, but to begin adding additional skills to their resume that could make them more marketable in what's already a tough economy.