To read the Worker Adjustment and Training Notification, click here

LORDSTOWN — A company that produces seating for the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze is the latest victim of General Motors’ decision to idle the plant next year.

Lordstown Seating Systems, a subsidiary of automotive supply company Magna, has announced it will cease production, causing the company to “layoff virtually all of its employees” at its Henn Parkway SW facility in February, according to a notice filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

About 120 employees will be affected, states the notice, known as a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification.

The layoffs are expected to happen Feb. 28, but could happen as soon as Feb. 25 and no later than March 8, which coincides with the last day for employees at the nearby General Motors Assembly Complex.

“Based on the information of which we are currently aware, the layoffs are expected to last longer than six months. Should General Motors allocate a future product to Lordstown Assembly, we would hope to be selected as the seat supplier, which may allow us to recall a significant number of employees,” the notice states. “If a future product is not allocated by General Motors and / or we are not selected as the seat supplier for the future product, these layoffs should be considered permanent.”

The notice is dated Dec. 14. It was posted to the JFS website Thursday.

General Motors announced in November its intention to unallocate the Lordstown plant and four others in North America in March. The automaker also announced it would stop producing the Cruze, which has been made at the local facility for 10 years.

A little more than 1,600 hourly and salaried employees at the plant will lose their jobs.

The news from Detroit comes about five months after the automaker eliminated the second shift, causing more than 1,000 employees to lose their jobs, and about 18 months after General Motors eliminated the third production shift, which affected about 1,200 employees.

Lordstown Seating Systems is the second local company to feel the ripple effect of General Motors’ downsizing in Lordstown.

Source Providers in Austintown, a warehousing, sequencing and logistics facility under Comprehensive Logistics, will close, causing about 180 employees to lose their jobs. The only client for the company, which acts as a feeder for the Lordstown GM facility, was the General Motors plant.

The company already had laid off about 300 employees in connection to the elimination of the second and third production shifts at the automaker.

rselak@tribtoday.com