GM announcement latest bad news for SW Mich.

By JAMES PRICHARD, AP Business Writer

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By Beth Boehne

Story Created: Oct 13, 2008 at 10:02 PM EST

Story Updated: Oct 13, 2008 at 10:02 PM EST

WYOMING, Mich. (AP) — Despite the long downturn in the domestic automotive industry, Greg Golembiewski said he didn't see it coming.

The president of United Auto Workers Local 730 said he was stunned when a General Motors Corp. official informed him Monday that the automaker was closing its three-shift metal-stamping plant in Wyoming, a Grand Rapids suburb.

Production will be phased out by the end of next year at the Grand Rapids Metal Center, which manufactures doors, hoods, fenders and other parts of GM vehicles, mostly trucks. The factory, which opened in 1936, has about 180 salaried workers and 1,340 hourly employees whom the union represents.

GM paid about $1.65 million in real and personal property taxes to the city of Wyoming this year, according to WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids. The Associated Press was unable to reach City Manager Curtis Holt to confirm the figure.

The announcement of the plant closing was the latest bad news for the region's economy, which has lost tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the automotive, office furniture and major appliance industries since the start of the decade.

State Rep. Kevin Green, a Wyoming Republican whose district includes the 2 million-square-foot plant, called it "a real sad day in Wyoming's history." He vowed to do what he could as a legislator to find another use for the automaker's 92-acre property and to help displaced workers become retrained and find new jobs.

Sitting in a darkened union hall, Golembiewski, a 25-year employee of the plant, told an Associated Press reporter that he was surprised by the decision because of the factory's record of efficiency, safety and profitability. He sometimes stopped the interview to answer his cell phone and talk with disbelieving union members.

"I am sick about what's happened here," he said. "I am devastated. I'd like not to believe what I heard today. It's like a bad dream."

Dayshift employees were told about the closing in a large production area, Golembiewski said. As he looked around, there was only disbelief in everyone's eyes.

"It was actually worse than a funeral because there were 1,400 funerals going on at the same time," he said. "I mean, this is like finding out the death of a loved one when there was no warning anything was going to happen."

Local 730 officials will meet Thursday with representatives of the international union to seek direction.

Meanwhile, the closing of the 72-year-old metal-stamping plant will likely mean the end of other businesses in the community, Golembiewski said.

"These folks here, they're just going to go out and put headstones out in front of their businesses," he said. "This plant supported so much around here."

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