HOWLAND TOWNSHIP, Ohio – Aptiv, the manufacturer now housed in Delphi Automotive Systems’ former plants, plans to shut down one of the company’s operations here July 14, according to a letter distributed to local union members this week.
Joseph Ferradino, president of IUE-CWA Local 717, which represents more than 400 workers at the Aptiv plants, announced in a letter to union members that the company intends to outsource its remaining cable production that is now underway in Plant 10 to Mexico.
“Essentially, this means the closing of Plant 10,” the letter says.
The closing will impact 63 employees, the letter states. Forty-six of these employees are in production, and 17 are in skilled trades. Three additional union officers signed the letter.
In January, Aptiv, headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, announced shareholders had approved separating the company’s electrical distribution system, or EDS, division into a stand-alone company.
“The company informed us that this decision has nothing to do with the Aptiv/EDS separation that was announced earlier this year,” the letter notes. The move has been planned since Aptiv began outsourcing the copper business in August 2022, and the “process of getting the product produced in Mexico and validated and approved by the customer has been ongoing since then.”
According to the letter, the union intends to meet with management over the next few weeks to discuss ways “to soften the blow” for the affected members.
Plant 10 was one of the operations owned by Delphi Packard Automotive Systems. At one point, Delphi Packard employed more than 14,000 at its plants in the Mahoning Valley.