


About 160 people could lose their jobs after a trucking company shutters its plant and a well-known packaging business lays off dozens of workers. Martin Transportation Systems Inc., 4169 Davison Road, Burton, will close its doors April 18, leaving 97 employees jobless. In a separate move, Landaal Packaging Systems plans to lay off about 60 workers permanently from its Flint Packaging Division, 3256 B Iron St., Burton, beginning in April, according to WARN notices sent by the companies to the state.
Steve Kimberlin, personnel manager for MTS, confirmed the closure but said he couldn't comment on why the facility is closing.
MTS was founded in Flint as Martin Leasing Co. by Minnie Martin in the late 1970s. It is now based in Byron Center, near Grand Rapids, and has about 10 locations.
The company hauls auto parts primarily for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, Kimberlin said.
Nina Bugbee, president of Teamsters Local 332, which represents about 60 MTS workers in Burton, said the union met with represented workers this month to inform them of the closing.
"We had no idea that they were going to close until we opened our mail one day," she said.
Bugbee said the union and its legal representation will meet with the company to talk about possible transfers and such issues as severance pay, health insurance and accrued vacation pay.
"Some of them have as much as 14, 15 years' seniority," she said. "Obviously, this was shocking, and they're very concerned because they've been able to make a pretty good living."
The company closed a Swartz Creek location last year when it lost work with GM Service and Parts Operations, Kimberlin said. He said a minimal number of workers were laid off then.
Layoffs at Landaal, a packaging and box-making company, also are related to SPO changes.
Executive Vice President Steve Landaal said SPO recently announced it would be doing in-house certain packaging work that companies such as Landaal had been performing.
"GM SPO makes up the majority of the business at this facility," he said of the roughly 200-employee Burton plant.
Landaal said the company hopes it doesn't have to lay off any workers or at least fewer than the roughly 60 it estimated in its required notice to the state. Layoffs will begin in April and continue through the end of July, he said.
"Our sales/marketing organization has been hard at work to try to backflow that business with new business, either from GM or diversifying from other manufacturers and other companies," he said. "Our motivation is to save the jobs of a lot of good people."
Landaal, a family-owned business, also operates a Delta Containers Division in Bay City.
Its former president, Thomas Landaal, a prominent community leader, died in December after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 53.
In its notice, Landaal said the company is reviewing options to offer affected employees severance benefits and outplacement service.
Under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, certain businesses that are closing or that plan mass layoffs must give at least 60 days' notice to individual workers or their labor union, the state and the chief local elected official.
Employers typically fall under the WARN Act if they have 100 or more employees and if they plan a plant closure or layoff affecting 50 or more workers.
Burton Mayor Charles Smiley said he wasn't aware of the pending MTS closure or layoffs at Landaal Packaging and hasn't been contacted by either business for help.
"It's tragic any time we're going to lose any jobs," he said.
(mlive.com)