Caterpillar, Inc, has cited decreased global sales as one of the reasons for its financial struggles in the past few years. (Photo courtesy Caterpillar Inc.)

More than 800 workers at the Aurora Caterpillar plant will lose their jobs  as the company plans to cease machine production there by the end of 2018.

The heavy equipment manufacturer announced its plans Friday afternoon following an agreement reached with the United Aurora Workers, covering about 5,000 Caterpillar employers according to reports.

That agreement includes severance pay and benefit extensions for the 800 union employees at the plant located along Route 30 near Montgomery.  But, Aurora workers reportedly were not included in being able to take a $10,000 bonus offered to those retiring before January 2019.

Those employees losing their jobs in Aurora will be able to apply to other CAT facilities, according to reports.

The majority of those jobs are being relocated to the company’s Decatur plant while another 150 are expected to go to North Little Rock, Ark.

About 1,800 people are currently employed at the Aurora facility and the company said some engineers and product support staff will remain there.

Caterpillar has been the largest employer in the Aurora region for many decades.

Caterpillar had hinted back in January it would make a decision about the Aurora plant by the end of the first quarter and that ended Friday, March 31.

These layoffs are just part of a continuing series of cost-cutting moves the global manufacturing giant has made over the past three years.

Plants in Central Illinois, including Peoria, East Peoria and Morton, have been hit by several rounds of layoffs since 2015.

In January, the company shocked the Central Illinois region by announcing it plans to pull its headquarters out of Peoria after being there since its founding in 1925.   The company is looking to relocate to Chicago by the end of this year, with about 300 workers assigned to that new office.

And more troubles came earlier this month when federal agents descended on the Peoria headquarters as part of an investigation into an alleged tax evasion scheme involving Caterpillar’s foreign properties.

Agents from IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Export Enforcement, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s Office of Inspector General were all on hand.

— Caterpillar closing Aurora plant, about 800 layoffs coming —