A metals supplier to the Detroit Three said it will close its plant in Detroit and permanently lay off more than 133 employees.
Autokiniton filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) with the state of Michigan earlier this month, saying it will close its Oakland Stamping factory complex by Dec. 31.
The notice said the first wave of terminations could occur as soon as Dec. 5 and continue through Dec. 19. The supplier makes small- and medium-size body stampings and welded assemblies and sells them to many automakers beyond Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis.
An Autokiniton representative at the company’s New Boston, Michigan, headquarters told the Detroit Free Press the company is not commenting on the decision to close the Oakland Stamping facility.
According to a published report in Crain’s Detroit Business, Oakland Stamping plant employees were told the closure is the result of a business decision after the company evaluated its portfolio of plants. Its website shows Autokiniton operates 23 manufacturing and design facilities in Michigan and 36 in the U.S. and about half a dozen across Mexico, India and Brazil.
The report stated that some of the union-represented workers at Oakland Stamping have 20 years of experience, and just five months ago, the union-represented employees ratified a new contract with the company that provided increased wages and added benefits.
This plant closure comes after steelmaker Cleveland Cliffs laid off more than 500 workers at its Dearborn Works facility in July. The company idled operations on the blast furnace, the basic oxygen furnace steel shop and continuous casting, blaming a weak auto market for the decision to idle.
In August, UAW President Shawn Fain, with politicians in tow, led a crowd of several hundred UAW members from Local 600 in Dearborn along Miller Road to the site of Cleveland Cliffs to protest the layoffs.
While the Cleveland Cliffs facility is no longer owned by Ford Motor Co. as it used to be, the company is one of the largest steel distributors in the U.S. and still provides materials for the Detroit Three automakers and many of its suppliers. Cleveland-Cliffs’ CEO Lourenco Goncalves told the Detroit Free Press at that time that the steelmaker would resume operations in Dearborn once the automotive production in the United States improved.
Jamie L. LaReau is the senior autos writer who covers Ford Motor Co. for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Three supplier closing factory and cutting 133 jobs
Reporting by Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
