Bobcat Co. is paring its work force by 146 employees through buyouts and forced layoffs at its Gwinner plant in southeast North Dakota, a union official said Monday.

"When they offered the voluntary buyout, 62 people volunteered, and I was one of them," said Randall Edison, treasurer of United Steelworkers Local 560 in Gwinner.

The company plans to cut 84 more workers through forced layoffs at its Gwinner plant by Friday, Edison said.

Bobcat began offering buyout packages to its hourly employees last month "in an attempt to align its work force to correspond with lower market demand," the company said in a statement at the time.

Edison said workers 55 or older with 20 years seniority will get a severance package equal to 30 weeks of pay if they volunteered for the reduction program. He said employees with less seniority will get severance packages of two weeks to 30 weeks of pay, depending on how long they have been with the company. Those employees also will be covered by health insurance for a year, he said.

"Those people give up all recall rights," Edison said. "The involuntary ones can be called back to work, depending on their seniority. They won't hire from the street - they'll bring all those people back first."

The company also announced earlier that it was planning to cut about 25 jobs at its machinery plant in Bismarck, through voluntary buyouts.

Steve Chmielewski, president of the United Steelworkers Local 566 in Bismarck, would not say if any employees had been laid off.

"I cannot disclose that," he said Monday.

Officials at Bobcat's parent company, Ingersoll-Rand Co. Ltd., did not immediately return telephone calls on Monday.

Bobcat, based in West Fargo, said before the layoffs that it had approximately 1,070 hourly workers at its Gwinner plant and 765 hourly workers at its Bismarck plant.

The plants in Bismarck and Gwinner make machinery for light construction. Bobcat, known for its skid-steer loaders, employs more than 2,600 people in North Dakota.

The company has said its revenues dropped by more than 20 percent last year compared to 2005, due to a decline in North American markets and a drop in shipments to distributors.

Union workers at the Bismarck plant agreed to a new four-year contract in October, after a two-week strike in a dispute over wages and health care costs. Union workers in Gwinner approved a new four-year contract in December without a strike.