Company representatives from Setex Canada GP gathered employees Monday to give them the official and unwelcome news that the plant will be permanently closing its doors.

The Michigan-based partnership of Johnson Controls and the Japanese company Tachi-S made the announcement on the heels of rumours that had been circulating for months amongst employees.

"This was a difficult, but necessary decision to help Setex maintain competitiveness and improve cost structure," Setex spokeswoman Debbie Lacey said. "We are in a challenging automotive environment and this requires a targeted reduction in our overall production by decreasing excess manufacturing capacity due to lower industry production."

Ms. Lacey also expressed "appreciation for the hard work and dedication of the team members in Shelburne."

Setex opened on the 2nd Line of Amaranth in 1999 and currently employs 240 workers. The plant builds seats for Honda vehicles at Alliston for the Accura MDX and the twodoor Civic. The height of operations was in 2007, when they were also building seats for the Honda Pilot, which is no longer assembled in Alliston.

Although an employee at Setex commented that the plant would likely shut down before the end of the year, Ms. Lacey would not make any comment on a time line for closure, saying "the exact closure [date] is still being finalized".

It has been rumoured that the MDX orders will be picked up by Johnson Controls in Milton as early as April, and that the Honda Civic orders will go to TSTEC in Newmarket, an affiliate of Honda.

An employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the dramatic drop in production had been a concern since the fall of last year. "We used to run two shifts producing 800 seats a day; now we are down to one shift producing 75 seats a day. We all suspected something was going to happen, but kept hoping that since we were so close to the Alliston Honda plant that they would want to keep doing business with Setex."

Mayor Ed Crewson said he spoke to Ms. Lacey last October when the rumours of closure started to circulate. She told him then that they were "just rumours" and that the plant would not be closing unless he heard it from her.

The Mayor sympathized with the workers, saying: "There won't be a family in Shelburne that isn't affected in some way. Everyone will have a family or friend who worked there."

He said the Town is currently working with Community Services Director Dan Best to develop a strategy to move forward with retraining programs and financial assistance information. Contact has also been made by the Town with the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade to seek out emergency assistance for the possibility of getting a new industry into the Setex building and creating new jobs for those left unemployed.

Mayor Crewson said he had spoken to Setex representatives and "pressed them for fair severance packages and opportunities for Shelburne workers to get jobs that open in Milton or Newmarket."

He says he has been promised assurance in writing that "employees will be treated with dignity and respect."

According to one employee, workers were shown a slide that indicated they would be "given severance packages according to the Employment Standards Act."

An employee, who has worked at Setex since it first opened, also expressed gratitude. "Setex was awesome to us; while business was booming, it was great. I can't help wondering if there weren't compromises that could have been made to help keep the plant open.

"It's going to be tough on a lot of families, especially where both the husband and wife work there. Setex wages afforded people the luxury to make purchases, like new homes in Shelburne. ... Those mortgages will be hard to cover now."