MISHAWAKA -- The strike at American Axle & Manufacturing will force AM General to halt production at its civilian Hummer H2 plant today, a spokesman said.
Nearly 400 workers will be laid off because of the shortage of parts to build the civilian H2, AM General spokesman Craig Mac Nab said Monday. The parts shortage will not affect the neighboring plant where about 1,300 workers assemble military Humvees, he said.
"The H2 and the Humvee do not share any parts and the Humvee does not have any parts from American Axle," Mac Nab said.
AM General builds the H2 for General Motors Corp. Last year, about 13,000 H2s were built at the facility.
Mac Nab said the H2 plant, which begins its shift about 5 a.m., will run out of parts about 9:30 a.m. today. He said most workers will be sent home, although some workers in the paint and body shop as well as some skilled trades workers may work for another day or two closing things down.
GM already had closed five plants, including one in Fort Wayne, as of Monday because of the American Axle strike, affecting more than 13,000 hourly workers.