GRAND RAPIDS, MI - After several meetings with executives of Dematic North America, members of the United Auto Workers Local 1485 concluded they had no response to the company's threat to move 300 manufacturing jobs to its factory in Mexico.

"When we looked up the pay rates in Monterrey, we found they were anywhere from $1.50 to $1.80 an hour," said Scott Wahlfeldt, president of Local 1485.

"It's really difficult for anybody here in the United States to accept wages like that. It would be illegal."

Dematic's 300 blue collar workers earn anywhere from $11.55 to $19.19 per hour for unskilled positions, Wahlfeldt said. Skilled positions pay up to $24.26 an hour, he said.

Last Friday, some 230 members of the union met to hear the latest news from the company and voted unanimously not to send an offer, Wahlfeldt said.

Wahlfeldt took that response back to the company on Monday and learned their jobs were moving to Mexico from a letter posted on a company bulletin board on Tuesday, Feb. 2.

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Dematic announced production would begin to move in the coming weeks and months and would be complete by September. The company designs and builds automated systems for warehouses, distribution centers and other sites with material-moving needs.

"The relocation of manufacturing activities will impact approximately 300 positions in fabrication, assembly, warehouse, and plant administration," the announcement said.

"This decision does not affect the more than 900 Grand Rapids positions in sales, engineering, research and development, solution development, customer service, and administration."

Wahlfeldt said the blue collar workforce ranges from veterans with decades of experience to young workers who were hired within the past two years. Wahlfeldt said he has worked for the company "on and off, with layoffs, for 16 years."

Based in Atlanta, Dematic North America is the largest division of the Luxembourg-based company Dematic Group. Dematic's factory at the corner of Plymouth Road and Michigan Street NE has been a fixture in the Grand Rapids manufacturing scene for more than 75 years.

The company was founded at the Rapids-Standard Company in 1939 when industrialist James R. Sebastian merged his business, Standard Truck Caster Company, with Rapids Manufacturing Company of Grand Rapids. The company's name was changed to Rapistan in 1966.

In 1980, the company was acquired by Lear Siegler Corp. and exchanged hands four times until 2006, when it was acquired by Triton, a private equity firm.

Although West Michigan's manufacturing sector is hiring, Wahlfeldt said many of the Dematic workers may take advantage of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, which allows workers to enroll in college in search of a new career. The workers are allowed to collect unemployment benefits during their retraining.

"A lot of the people want to go to school and get into a new trade," he said. "The last thing they want to do is stay in manufacturing in Michigan."

"Everybody is in shock and still hasn't decided what to do," he said four hours after the notice was posted.

Jim Harger covers business for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.