Some 114 employees at Federal-Mogul Corp.'s automotive lighting plant in Franklin Park, Ill., will be laid off within the next month as part of a shutdown of all operations there.
The closure, which is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year, eventually will affect about 375 employees, said Jim Fisher, a spokesman for Southfield-based Federal-Mogul.
Federal-Mogul, which last year filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, told employees in June that the plant would close, but more recently, it publicly disclosed the plan in a layoff notice to the state of Illinois. The company filed for protection because of its exposure to asbestos lawsuits.
The site is part of the firm's Lighting Products division, producing molded headlamps, fog lamps, interior lights and other components. Federal-Mogul is looking to reduce its sales in lighting, considering the unit noncore. It also has entered discussions to sell the unit to Decoma International Inc. of Concord, Ontario.
A deal with Decoma would not affect the shutdown, because the decision to close Franklin Park came before Federal-Mogul and Decoma signed a letter of intent to pursue a possible sale. Decoma is considering a purchase of two other manufacturing sites - one in Virginia and one in Mexico.