Forvia closing Highland Park plant, laying off 511 after leaving part of Jeep work

Automotive supplier Forvia SE is closing its Highland Park plant and laying off 511 workers after exiting part of the Jeep Grand Wagoneer seating program.

Forvia had been losing money on the just-in-time part of the operations, the French supplier disclosed in a quarterly earnings release on Thursday. An “amicable” resolution with Jeep maker Stellantis NV, according to Forvia, is allowing it to terminate the just-in-time business by Sept. 30 and continue seat frame activity by relocating it to Monterrey, Mexico. The Grand Wagoneer is built at Stellantis’ Warren Truck Assembly Plant.

In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification to the state of Michigan dated July 17, the company said the layoffs would begin Sept. 23 in Highland Park and result in the closure of the plant at 13000 Oakland Park Blvd. Crain’s Detroit Business first reported the impending plant closure.

Employees represented by the United Auto Workers do have bumping rights, and spokeswoman Misty Matthews said in an email the company is encouraging workers to apply for open position at its other Metro Detroit operations. Forvia has manufacturing operations in Auburn Hills, Fraser, Sterling Heights and Taylor as well as Saline and Toledo, Ohio, according to its website.

A message was left with the United Auto Workers Local 155 in Warren, which represents employees at the plant.

The plant closure comes after the company notified the state late last year that it would be closing its metals department and laying off 268 employees.

At the time, the company said it would move production to another unspecified facility. Waymon Halty, vice president of Local 155, had told Crain’s the metal framing operations at the seating plant that supplies Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs from Stellantis NV’s Jeep team were going to a plant in Mexico.