The Owens Corning wood products plant in Prineville is closing, eliminating 184 jobs. (Jason Chaney/Central Oregonian)

Owens Corning to shut down facility, but officials cite strong job market and skilled workforce

Owens Corning, a Prineville building products manufacturer, will lay off all 184 employees beginning Aug. 25, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification on file. 

The city of Prineville will be working with the company and the laid off workers to help them find work, said Steve Forrester, Prineville city manager. 

The company filed a notice, which is required by U.S. labor law, that announced the plant closing. Some employees will remain on through September to assist in the winding down of the facility, according to the notice. The plant will ultimately shutter in November. 

“It is sad,” said Forrester. “It’s important to keep in mind that this was a secondary manufacturing facility, which means it consumed materials made from the saw mills. We haven’t had saw mills here for a long time. The company had to bring in wood products from outside to make their engineered components.”   

Since the closing of the Ochoco Lumber Co. in 2001, the city has been working to land businesses that create jobs paying a family wage, Forrester said.  

The Prineville manufacturing site is part of a global business for more than 25,000 in 31 countries. It was founded in 1938 in Toledo, Ohio and in 2024 it posted $2.5 billion in sales, according to public financial disclosures. The company said it made “a strategic business decision to close our doors components facility,” said Megan James, Owens Corning director of external and enterprise communication.

“This decision was not taken lightly, and leadership’s priority is supporting the team in Prineville through this transition,” James said. 

Manufacturing employs 690 people in May, down by 10 jobs from May 2024, according to employment data from the Oregon Employment Department. The wood products manufacturing sector employed 340 people in Crook County, according to state employment data. 

“These workers affected by the layoffs are highly skilled,” Forrester said. “I think we have a lot of economic momentum — Prineville has the third highest median income in the state — to support our workers. We’ve done a tremendous amount of work to put ourselves in that position. Data centers have brought us back to that along with the businesses that support the data center industries. It’s similar to the support businesses that were created by the saw mills.”