The Republic staff reports
Columbus Components Group permanently sent home another 55 employees Tuesday, a union official said.
Leaders of the automotive supplier in mid-June had announced they would begin layoffs Tuesday and close the plant, on 17th Street, by July 31.
At the time, CCG wrote in a letter to employees that the shutdown would affect 215 people.
Jerry Wagner, office manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1424, said Tuesday that he was negotiating with company officials to get the workers a severance package.
The union voted in February to accept a 5 percent pay cut, an increase in insurance premiums and deductibles and suspension of company contributions to employees' 401(k) plans after company leaders had warned that without those concessions they would have to close the plant.
Nonetheless, CCG over the last few months repeatedly has laid off employees and cut positions, citing declining sales.
Wagner, however, has said that the company abandoned light-duty automotive work to focus almost exclusively on heavy-duty automotive work, which the union believes was a mistake.
CCG owner Patrick James and former owners Jay Schabel and Mike Klinginsmith have closed at least 10 manufacturing plants in North America in the last 10 years, eliminating at least 1,500 jobs and leaving suppliers and employees owed money.
Default judgments against CCG totaling $61,861.84 have been awarded to three companies this year. Six lawsuits and two liens by eight companies are seeking about $425,000 for non-payments of services or products.
James, Schabel and Klinginsmith bought the plant from ArvinMeritor Inc. in 2004, when it employed more than 500.
CCG officials repeatedly have declined interview requests.