Automotive seating supplier Lear Corp. plans to permanently close an injection molding plant in Taylor, Mich., in a move that will affect 76 employees, who will have the chance to move with the production to another site.
The Southfield, Mich.-based company will close the Taylor facility by Oct. 21, according to a WARN notice filed with the state. Layoffs will start Aug. 12.
Lear is shifting work from Taylor to one in Traverse City, Mich., about 270 miles northwest of Taylor, and said it is offering affected employees the chance to transfer.
"Our production and personnel needs fluctuate based on business conditions," the company said in a statement emailed to Crain's Detroit Business, a sister publication of Plastics News. "We have transferred this work to our Traverse City facility, creating a North American Center of Excellence for Terminals and Connectors. All employees have been offered employment in the newly expanded Traverse City facility and we are pleased to keep the jobs in Michigan."
Affected employees, mostly operators and quality technicians, are represented by UAW Local 174. The union could not be reached for comment.
The Taylor Plant, part of the company's electrical systems division, opened in 1991 and serves as a manufacturing hub for the company's terminal and connectors group. It is a small plastic injection molding facility that makes electrical component hardware for automotive companies, according to its website.