Tyson Foods will lay off 45 workers at its Harrisonburg plant on Friday.

The company says the layoffs will reduce the number of employees at the plant to 375.

Manager Danny Sutton says the plant will shift its production focus from whole chickens to cut-up chickens because of high costs and increasingly competitive markets in the meat and poultry industries.

The plant's remaining employees will work shorter hours in 2009.

Tyson Foods is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas.