Terrible news for 810 families in the Lansing area.

First 2013 Cadillac ATS Rolls Off Assembly Line In Lansing
Getty Images
loading...

WLNS in Lansing reports that the entire third shift at the plant is being eliminated. That will cut the jobs of 810 people, 300 of which were temporary employees.

According to GM's Corporate website the plant in our state's capital had 2,725 employees across the 3 shifts as of April of this year. So, they're cutting roughly 30% of their employees in January. So much for a happy holiday season for the 810 families.

My heart goes out to the families.

I grew up in a medium sized town in Louisiana. Where we had a 3 'plants' - all factory jobs that paid reasonably well; GM, GE, and AT&T.

My father in fact worked at the GE plant. It was long hard hours, and he always came home smelling like hot metal and oil, but the job paid well. He was able to provide a great childhood for my sister and myself.

There were hard times here and there of course because of short term layoffs, but we always made it through.

I'll never forget around 1998 or so, my dad seemed dispirited so I asked him if he was okay. He told me one of his supervisors told his team 'If you guys don't start meeting quota's they're going to send these jobs to Mexico.'

Sure enough, a year or so later that's what happened. Thankfully, my Dad was able to take early retirement.

As of the last time I was in town, the GE plant was on a skeleton crew, and the other two plants had long since shut down. It was a lot of good jobs ... just gone. And no real options to replace them. Unless you want to work at a casino dealing cards I guess.

Bringing it back to Lansing, I hope things turn around and that the displaced employees find good replacement jobs soon.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of the employees affected.

More From 98.7 WFGR