Another business bites the dust.

Pactiv Evergreen recently joined a growing list of companies set to close up shop and lay off employees in Michigan this spring, sending a notice to the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity that it plans to issue pink slips to 153 at one of two if its Kalamazoo facilities.

“Employee separations are expected to begin on April 11, 2025 and be completed on or before June 13, 2025,” the Feb. 4 notice read.

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Israel Castro, a union representative, told MLive all employees are expected to face termination on April 11, while management will continue until the plant closes in June.

“We believe it’s a shame that the company decided to make this decision to close down this facility,” Castro said. “Our focus is on taking care of our members and helping them throughout this transition for other employment or retirement or whatever they decide to do.”

Pactiv Evergreen, based in Illinois, employs more than 14,000 at 51 manufacturing facilities and 42 distribution centers across North America, including two plants in Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo facilities were previously owned by Fabri-Kal, which was acquired by Pactiv Evergreen in 2021, according to Packaging Gateway, an industry publication.

Pactiv Evergreen has a total of 1,100 product lines, and the Kalamazoo plant specializes in food and beverage containers.

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“In December last year, Pactiv Evergreen reached a definitive agreement to merge with Novolex, the packaging company owned by Apollo Global Management, creating a combined entity through an all-cash deal worth $6.7B,” Packaging Gateway reports. “Set to be completed by mid-2025, the merger will position the new entity within the food, beverage, and specialty packaging sectors.”

The layoffs in Kalamazoo will include 25 press or assistant press operators, 25 stackers, 15 sealing operators, 10 inspectors, eight managers or supervisors, and 70 other employees, from storeroom clerks to analysts.

Castro told MLive the Printing, Packaging Production Workers Union of North America that represents all but 25 of the impacted employees is now working to find them new jobs. Some employees, he said, had worked at the plant since the 1990s.

“We are also working to place some of them at other unionized facilities in the area,” Castro said. “We also got the company to agree to bring in a job fair and do that on the premises.”

Pactiv Evergreen layoffs are among 1,830 scheduled for 14 large companies in the next two months, impacting workers in nine counties.

Other companies planning permanent closures in the coming weeks include Lippert Components in Chesaning, Michigan Spring & Stamping of Muskegon, US Farathane in Troy, Macy’s locations in Sterling Heights and Troy, SpartanNash in Caro, Jack Cooper Transport Company in Wayne, Tervis Tumbler Company in Frankenmuth, Universal Logistics Insights in Detroit, Hyzon Mortors USA in Troy, and Webasto Roof Systems in Rochester Hills, according to required notices.

Michigan’s unemployment rate increased by two tenths to 5% in December, marking the ninth straight month of increasing unemployment in the Great Lakes State.

A total of 252,000 Michiganders were unemployed in December, which translates to 45,000 more than the 207,000 unemployed in December 2023.

“Michigan’s number of unemployed people increased by 21.7 percent over the year, again 12.7 percentage points larger than the growth in unemployed persons seen nationally (+9.0 percent),” according to the Department of Technology, Management & Budget.

Many of those job losses came from the state’s critical automotive industry, despite billions in business incentive deals inked by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration to force a transition to electric vehicles.