One of four APTIV plants in Trumbull County, better known as Packard Electric Plant 10 is closed for good.

The last few remaining workers walked out Friday afternoon after the company outsourced jobs. 28 workers were permanently laid off, about half of the 63 jobs lost. Others received early exit incentives, negotiated by the IUE-CWA Local 717.

"These are just normal, hard-working, everyday people just coming in, working a normal job, trying to make ends meet," said union leader Joseph Ferradino.

It's been a snowball effect dating back to General Motors' divorce with Delphi in 1999. The former Packard Electric was once a division of the GM, the world's largest automotive manufacturer at the time. Another gut punch came in 2005 when Delphi filed for bankruptcy in 2005.

Ferradino started a few years later, when the plant, named Delphi-Packard at the time, was a big supplier of automotive electrical components for Lordstown GM.

"We basically did the whole interior work of the electronical system for the car, shipped it up to Lordstown," Ferradino explained.

Over the years, production had dwindled down to just wire and a connector. APTIV was the result of Delphi Automotive splitting into two companies in 2017. 

Ferradino says in a letter sent to the union in May, detailing the layoff plans, it also stated that the move had been in the works since 2022 when APTIV began outsourcing it's copper business to Mexico.

The union contract is up October 2026. Ferradino hopes APTIV comes to the negotiating table then, in the wake of this recent plant closure. When asked about how confident he is that the other three plants in Trumbull County won't face the same fate, Ferradino says he isn't.

"We're not confident at all, you know we're kind of going on the defense here at this point," Ferradino added.