MORAINE, Ohio (AP) -- General Motors Corp.'s plans to cut production have sparked a Dayton-area supplier to lay off 290 hourly workers, a spokeswoman for DMAX said Thursday.
General Motors officials said they plan to scale back production for heavy-duty trucks and vans. DMAX manufactures engines for those models and expected demand to drop.
The 290 DMAX layoffs will take effect July 14, said Courtney Strickler, a spokeswoman for the company's plant in Moraine. The plant employs about 1,160 people to make engines for GM and Isuzu diesel models.
Moraine has been hit hard as GM's new production plans have become public. GM on Tuesday said it will stop making the GMC Envoy, Chevy TrailBlazer and other midsize SUVs here by 2010. About 2,400 residents work at the plant, which is one of four that GM plans to shut.
Moraine is in one of the country's hard-hit pockets of the housing slump. Officials fear the departure of the manufacturing base will leave behind a bleak landscape rife with poverty.
Workers at the GM plant earlier this year were laid off because of a parts shortage, which prompted a rush toward social service agencies for everything from transportation to food.
