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MISHAWAKA – AM General Corp. is laying off 250 workers from the northern Indiana factory where it builds Humvees because the U.S. military is buying fewer of the vehicles.
About 70 workers won’t return when the Mishawaka plant reopens Jan. 4 from its Christmas shutdown and 180 workers are expected to be laid off during January, said Don Taber, unit chairman for United Auto Workers Local 5.
The company told workers last spring that job cuts were possible if new orders didn’t come in to compensate for an armor kit contract expiring at year’s end.
The layoffs come as the factory is building 64 of the military vehicles a day, down from 85 vehicles a day in the past, said Carter Hamilton, AM General’s vice president of operations.
The company has about 2,300 workers in South Bend and Mishawaka, where it also has built the Hummer H2 consumer truck.
Taber said workers began receiving new assignments in November to prepare for the layoffs.
“(The workers) have prepared themselves the best they can, but it’s never a good feeling if you know everybody else is returning and you’re not,” Taber said.
The union considers the layoffs to be permanent because company officials have not given workers a possible recall date, he said.
AM General says it hopes to resume production of the H2, which was stopped in January. General Motors Co. sold the Hummer brand to Chinese company Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp. in October.
The company also has a contract with Miami-based Vehicle Production Group to build a vehicle called the MV-1 for people with disabilities.
VPG says it expects production of the MV-1 to start next October.
