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USA / MI (WNEM) - GM announces layoffs at local plant

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A local General Motors plant will layoff workers while retooling takes place at Saginaw Metal Casting.

A spokesperson for the automaker said fewer than 100 employees will be laid off from the  plant beginning Friday.

It's part of a $256 million investment it announced last year. Those jobs may return once work on the plant is complete.

This comes on the heels of an announcement last week by the automaker, in which 560 workers will be laid off, starting in August.

GM says these layoffs at the Romulus, Mich., factory will start in August and run to late 2015. The company is rebuilding the inside of the factory to make a new, more efficient V-6 engine.

The plant now builds several V-6 and V-8 motors for trucks as well as industrial and marine uses. When the $390 million upgrade is finished, the plant will make only V-6s.

During the layoffs, about 430 full-time workers will get unemployment and supplemental pay worth about 75 percent of their wages. Another 130 temporary workers will lose their jobs.

GM announced the retooling in 2011. About 120 skilled employees will stay while the work is done.

General Motors has announced plans to invest $332 million into four factories in three Great Lakes states to build new, more efficient engines and transmissions.

GM says the spending at plants in Toledo, Ohio; Bedford, Ind.; and Flint and Bay City, Mich., will allow the company to build a new V-6 engine, a new small motor and new eight-speed automatic transmissions.

The company also added $46 million to a prior investment at plants in Romulus and Saginaw, Mich. to build the new V-6.

No jobs will be added, but GM says the investments preserve 1,650 jobs at the six factories.

The investment also will help GM build more six-speed automatic transmissions as auto sales continue to rise in the U.S.

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