Dura Automotive plant running on empty

MANCELONA -- This small northern Michigan town's major industrial employer is nearly out the door.

Dura Automotive is in the process of shuttering its Mancelona latch-and-hinge manufacturing plant and about half of the affected 300 workers already are gone.

Only a skeleton crew of a few dozen remain to finish orders and close the factory by December.

"Many are ready to turn the page and go do something new, like me," said Ron Pavlichek of Mancelona, a tool and dye maker with 13 years at Dura. "I'm 40 and it's tough to start a whole new career. Tool and dye has certainly paid the bills."

Pavlichek expects to work until the end of July and then hopes to take advantage of available federal retraining programs to go back to school, maybe for computer science. He hopes others do the same.

Mike Smith of Kalkaska and his longtime girlfriend Teri Lamia both worked their final days at Dura last week. They also will consider a return to school, he said.

Perhaps the couple will think about a move to another state where more auto industry jobs can be found, he said.

Local restaurant owner Bill Avery knows many of the affected workers as customers and thinks the factory's loss will diminish an already weak area economy -- a "huge hit" for Mancelona.

"There's a lot of fear ... people are worried about where they'll find another job. A lot of people were just hanging on to begin with," Avery said. "I'm worried for the town. I'm worried for all of us."

The United Auto Workers union negotiated a closing agreement with the company, including a severance package of one week of pay for every year of employment, capped at 10 years, officials said.

In February, Dura warned employees of a potential factory closure after union members voted against a proposed contract. The Mancelona operation included 53 salaried employees and 250 hourly workers, company officials said.

Village officials hope tax incentives may lure redevelopment to the site and perhaps regain some of the lost jobs, said Robert Wilcox, village president.

"To see that plant leave after it's been here for 50-60 years, whether under Dura or another name, it makes you think that things can go away in life and they do go away," Wilcox said.

This factory closure is part of the international business' restructuring as Dura emerges from bankruptcy, said Christina Stenson, company spokeswoman.

"It is part of an operational restructuring program to move production from high to low cost areas and enhance capacity utilization across Dura's operational footprint," she said.

Dura filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2006 and tried to sell the Mancelona factory for much of 2007.

The company described the plant as a "non-core, underperforming operation" with eroding earnings in documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

The company also recently reduced its workforce at plants across the country. Dura is based in Rochester Hills and has nearly 13,800 employees at 36 plants spread across 16 countries in North America, Europe and Asia.

Photos

This Dura Automotive latch-and-hinge manufacturing plant in Mancelona already laid off much of its 300 person work force. Record-Eagle