Connectivity Solutions Manufacturing, Inc. will close its doors for good next year. As the Omaha plant shuts down, some 400 people will lose their jobs.

Workers at the facility make equipment for communications networks, mostly cabinets to house electrical equipment.

In January, its parent company, CommScope, announced 110 layoffs would occur through March at the local facility. The possibility of closing the plant at 125th & "I" was mentioned at the time. It was made official Wednesday.

“Over a period of years, we've continued to downsize. And there's been concern,” said employee Dan Buelt. A master mold technician by trade, Buelt is now president and business manager of the workers' union, IBEW #1974.

Buelt is among those who will lose their jobs as the plant shuts down. "While it wasn't completely unexpected,” he said, “it's still hard to hear that the end is now upon us."

The move, CommScope President and Chief Operating Officer, Eddie Edwards said, was necessary to protect the company’s profitability.

Edwards said a combination of difficult circumstances led to the decision to shut down Connectivity Solutions. They include, “facility under-utilization, high labor costs, customers’ spending slowdown and their demand for lower-cost products.”

The company told Channel 6 News the jobs won’t go all at once. The plan is to phase them out through next year, as the manufacturing is phased in at one or more facilities throughout North America. CommScope spokesman Rick Aspan said they want to minimize the impact on customers.

Right now, it's the workers feeling the impact. Buelt said the plant manager called all workers to an auditorium meeting Wednesday morning. “At the end of that meeting there were tears in production workers eyes and managers eyes,” he said. “It’s the end of an era.”

The facility has been a Millard landmark, housing Western Electric, AT & T, Lucent and Avaya before connectivity solutions. "Anybody my age, it's hard to not know somebody who has worked there,” Buelt said. While company names have changed, many workers stayed on.

"The average age of the employee in that facility is 53 years old. The people that will be directly impacted,” Buelt said, “average service date is 19 years up to some 40 years.”

Manufacturing is what they know. Buelt says new jobs will be hard to come by, as companies increasingly outsource to other countries.

CommScope has not said where Omaha's work will go, but that they will stay in North America. The company has plants in Mexico, and several other countries.

"We need to start making things in this country,” said Buelt. “We need to build manufacturing plants, not close them."

Of the Omaha closure, Edwards said, “These actions are difficult yet unavoidable, and we regret the hardship on our employees. We are grateful to our CSMI Omaha workforce for their outstanding service."

There is no word from CommScope’s corporate office on exactly when the first phase of Omaha’s layoffs will begin. Buelt said workers will receive severance packages and some will qualify for pensions.

Seventy other employees in non-manufacturing roles will stay on in Omaha. They will be transferred to a new office once the Millard plant closes.