DesignWare employees fight to keep their jobs

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (Newschannel 3) - Hundreds of employees at a local partyware plant are fighting to save their jobs.

Some 300 jobs at the DesignWare plant in Kalamazoo are on the chopping block.

DesignWare is a division of American Greetings, based out of Cleveland, and right now, the company is looking into plans that could possibly consolidate the Kalamazoo plant with one in Tennessee.

Management at the Kalamazoo facility is encouraging workers to write letters to Gov. Granholm and state lawmakers to generate support to keep the plant open, and workers and their families say they don't know what they'll do if it closes.

"A lot of these people don't know anything else, if they had to go out and get another job, I don't know," said employee Cinda McNees.

If the plant closes, the city of Kalamazoo would also lose more than $460,000 in property taxes.