For the second time this year a St. Joseph County, Michigan auto parts manufacturer has been forced to lay off dozens of hourly workers largely due to the end of a Tier 1 supplier contract with one of the Big Three automakers.
Authorities at the International Automotive Components plant in Mendon, a little over an hour east of St. Joe, say that a General Motors contract program phasing out at the end of the year is leaving 83 workers on the sidelines. A similar project ending last summer resulted in 64 sidelined workers back in June at the same plant which manufactures parts for automotive interiors for the major car makers.
One spokesman for the company told reporters that the layoffs, although stemming from a GM product line, had nothing whatsoever to do with GM’s news last week of plans to lay off thousands of their own workers and the closure of several plants across the world.
The plant in Mendon is one of more than 50 manufacturing facilities across the globe flying the International Automotive Components flag, and the company says that “all plants ebb and flow with the business lined up to support them,” leaving job levels rising and lowering with the tide of job volumes associated with each project.
The 83 workers cut by IAC worked their last day on the job yesterday, Friday, November 30th. The plant, which had more than 600 employees several years ago is the largest employer in the Mendon community, even though the staff was down to around 320 this fall. The corporation has more than 22,000 workers worldwide.
The Communications Director for IAC, Julie Noyes, issued a statement that said, in part, “As we do not have replacement business to fill the void, the reductions were unavoidable.”
The photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market, courtesy of International Automotive Components, is for illustration purposes only. It shows a production line from the company’s Halewood facility in the United Kingdom.
