GM to close 7th plant due to Axle strike

By Ben Klayman

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it will close a seventh facility next week as the impact from a strike against American Axle & Manufacturing Inc (AXL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) widens for the No. 1 U.S. automaker.

GM said its Toledo, Ohio, transmission plant was expected to close on Monday due to the impact of the strike by the United Auto Workers. The sixth plant in Mishawaka, Indiana, was shut down mid-morning on Tuesday.

The latest announcement will affect about 1,400 hourly workers. All the closures mean over 15,000 GM workers, or nearly a fifth of its blue-collar work force in North America were facing lay off because of the strike.

Separately, Lear Corp (LEA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said it had been forced to idle four U.S. facilities and shut a fifth completely as a knock-on effect from the GM production shutdown. About 700 UAW-represented workers have been laid off as a result, a spokeswoman for Lear said.

The Lear plants affected make seats and related parts for GM's line of trucks.

At American Axle, about 3,600 UAW-represented workers in Michigan and New York went on strike last Tuesday against the supplier. A spokeswoman for the company said talks between the two sides had not resumed.

"We're ready to talk when they're ready to come back to the table," American Axle's Renee Rogers said. UAW officials were not immediately available to comment.

American Axle relies on GM for almost 80 percent of its sales and the GM plant idlings show the impact of the strike- related shutdown of its U.S. plants starting to spread across the automaker's product line.