The struggling automotive market claims another local supplier plant with 150 stateline workers losing their jobs.

Gates Corporation will be shutting the doors permanently at its Rockford plant on Sandy Hollow road. A spokesman for the Denver based company says that the closing is expected to be complete by the fourth quarter of 2010.

Our local U.S. Congressman says closures like Gates is a byproduct of mismanagement by the federal government. "The problem that we have is that Washington has never understood manufacturing. We have to build and manufacture our way out of this recession not pour money that does not exist into the top. Unless we get people working again this recession will never recover," said Rockford's 16th District Rep. Don Manzullo.

The company president said the closure is not a reflection on the performance of the plant employees or plant operations. The Rockford facility is one of 14 in North America and the only one currently being shut down.