MORAINE, Ohio - December 21, 2008 - General Motors Corp.’s financial woes have GM workers around the country worrying about what life without GM might be like. The 1,080 hourly workers at the automaker's sport utility plant in this Dayton suburb are about to find out. For them, life without GM begins Tuesday.

That's when the automaker pulls the plug on the plant that over the past 27 years has spit out cars, trucks and SUVs, helped pay mortgages and college educations, and provided a security blanket in turbulent times.

"The news was devastating at first," said Jackie Wilson, a 39-year-old mother who has spent 15 years at the plant. "It's all I've known."

GM and other U.S. automakers are mired in a sales slump because of the economic downturn, tight or nonexistent credit, and lack of consumer confidence. So far this year, GM alone has announced 11,000 U.S. layoffs.

Stress on the workers at the Moraine plant has been mounting since June, when GM announced it would close the plant because high gasoline prices were driving consumers away from the SUVs made there.

Other GM plants could soon be facing a similar fate.