Armstrong Closing Montreal Tile Plant

Lancaster, PA, Feb. 9, 2009--Armstrong World Industries Inc. is closing its Montreal commercial and residential tile factory indefinitely effective May 1.

The 150 unionized workers were informed of the shutdown this week.

“Our members are worried,” Mario Denis, a spokesman for the United Steelworkers, said today.

Denis acknowledged the company isn’t talking definitive closure for the moment and that they’ve left open the possibility of resuming operations in 2010 or even later this year if the market returns.

Beth Riley, Armstrong vice-president of corporate communications, told The Gazette in a phone interview that the decision was “based on the decline in demand for our product and had nothing to do with the plant’s performance or profitability.”

The company informed the union that about half a dozen workers will be kept to maintain the only Canadian facility so it will be ready to resume production once the market stabilizes.