FAIRFAX, Kan. (KCTV) – The temporary layoffs and retooling of General Motors’ Fairfax, Kansas plant to begin making the all-electric Chevrolet Bolt has led to negative ripple effects in Riverside, Missouri.

The latest Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) letter was sent to Riverside Mayor Kathy Rose about the 144 permanent layoffs at Martinrea Riverside LLC.

An excerpt from that letter reads: “The first round of layoffs is expected to occur on December 6, 2024, but it is expected that some employees will be retained until approximately January 17, 2025, or around.”

These layoffs will affect approximately 69 employees on the first date, and then approximately 75 employees on the second date.

An earlier WARN letter from Yanfeng, another GM Autoparts supplier, announced that 444 employees would be laid off and the plant will be permanently closed. The layoffs were planned for between last week and next week.

A third WARN letter from Adient plc also notified Mayor Rose that 169 permanent layoffs would be implemented between November 11 and two weeks later.

Mayor Rose sent a statement to KCTV5 about the negative ripple effect occurring in Riverside.

“While there is never a good time to see these job losses, it is a particularly difficult time for those affected by the holiday season upon us,” Rose said in part in the letter.

Penske Logistics also announced 72 temporary layoffs in a WARN letter previously shared with KCTV. OP Mobility, based in Fairfax, WARN letters from the same time period notified 72 employees who were also laid off.

Virgil White owns the KC Burger Joint in Riverside. Some of the employees who have been affected eat at his restaurant.

“Because probably the first of November is really when we’ve noticed that a lot of the Yanfeng employees don’t come here for lunch,” White said. “We would place orders at GM every Friday, and I haven’t seen an order at GM — not once this month.”

The first round of temporary layoffs at GM will occur Friday with about 680 workers. The second round of temporary layoffs consisting of approximately 1,015 will take place in January.

GM employees are scheduled to return to work after the plant is remodeled, and per the union contract, they will receive 75 percent of their pay during the shutdown period.

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