WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) — This week marks the end of an era for those working at the General Motors Warren Transmission plant.
Come Friday, the doors to the plant will close.
But people who work there are not going down without a fight.
Today at 12:30 noon, UAW workers plan on speaking to media to let everyone know how they feel about the facility closing.
Democrats are also speaking out today, including the Chair of the Democratic National Committee Tom Perez and Michigan Representative Dan Kildee.
They are placing the blame on President Donald Trump, saying the closing of the plant highlights broken promises.
They are set to speak at 10 a.m.
General Motors announced the closures of the Warren plant, the Hamtramck Assembly plant in Detroit, and other plants in Ohio and Canada.
All these closures mean 14,700 factory and white collar workers will be laid off. Nearly, 8,100 white collar workers will either take buyouts or be laid off.
The company says the move will help them transition into producing more SUVs and trucks — which is in high demand by consumers.
GM responded to the closure with the following statement:
The 6-speed transmission was a good product and was built with tremendous pride by the Warren team. We know this is an emotional time for our Warren Transmission team members. We appreciate their commitment and hard work to build the highest quality possible into each and every transmission produced at Warren Transmission Operations. Our focus remains on the employees and the impacted communities. We have job opportunities for every hourly employee at the impacted plants. These are highly-skilled employees, and we want them to stay with the company. We have now placed more than 1,700 employees (out of 2,800) from our unallocated plants to other GM locations. Our goal is to build a strong future for our employees and our business.
