Auto industry
GM plant closing taking supplier jobs with it
Many parts suppliers have diversified their business to avoid a heavy dependence on the automotive industry.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
MORAINE — The closing of General Motors Corp.'s Moraine Assembly plant takes with it hundreds of jobs at supplier companies, and marks the end of nearly a century of GM manufacturing tradition in the Miami Valley.
The Moraine city administration said it doesn't have precise figures of the total job loss in the community of GM suppliers, but regards it as significant. Together with the loss of about 1,100 remaining jobs at the GM Moraine sport utility vehicle assembly plant, the tax revenue loss is projected to total 20 percent to 22 percent of Moraine's annual income tax collections, City Manager David Hicks said.
The exact revenue impact isn't determined yet because city officials aren't sure how many other smaller GM suppliers may continue operating with reduced work forces, Hicks said.
Jamestown Industries Inc., whose Arbor Boulevard plant supplies parts to GM Moraine, informed its approximately 80 employees in October that it would close at about the time of the GM plant closing today.
Johnson Controls Inc. said it plans to close its West Carrollton plant, which makes seats for the midsized SUVs built at Moraine, including the Chevrolet TrailBlazer and GMC Envoy. The Johnson Controls plant employs about 330 people and will close in alignment with GM's shutdown, Johnson Controls spokeswoman Debra Lacey said.
Given the long-simmering problems of the U.S. auto industry and its challenge from foreign manufacturers of fuel-efficient vehicles, many parts suppliers began diversifying their business years ago to avoid a heavy dependence on automotive industry customers, said Angelia Erbaugh, executive director of the Dayton Tooling & Manufacturing Association.
A survey by the 330-member organization a decade ago found that just 25 percent of its members' business was devoted to the automotive sector, Erbaugh said. Small suppliers couldn't always afford to wait for the slow issuance of payments from large auto manufacturers, and so were wary of depending too heavily on them for business, Erbaugh said.
The GM plant's body shop and paint shop operations, which occur earlier in the production process at Moraine, were wrapped up prior to today's shutdown of assembly work there, GM spokeswoman Sherrie Childers Arb said.
GM originally had said it would close the Moraine plant in 2010, but moved up the date in October as SUV sales continued to plummet. GM also is today closing an SUV assembly plant that has operated for 80 years in Janesville, Wis.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or
jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
