DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — 3M Co. is consolidating its plant in Guin in northwest Alabama with a facility that’s closing in Poca, West Va., as part of company wide changes.

The changes mean the company will slow a previously announced expansion project at the 800-employee plant in Decatur.

The company’s human resources manager in Decatur, Wayne Martin, said work has been slowed on the expansion project as a way to prevent a loss of jobs.

Martin said 3M still plans to eventually go ahead with the expansion.

“We have decided to reduce the activity level on our expansion projects for the next several months until we have a better understanding of the global economic crisis and its impact on our business,” Martin said. “We are doing this to save money and protect jobs. We are not shutting down the construction projects, only delaying some of the activity.”

The delayed projects manufacture optical film, the hardest hit of 3M’s many products.

3M’s construction slowdown will delay a $120 million film-plant upgrade that was to add 50 jobs.

Executives have said the company plans to reduce staffing, although officials would not say how many jobs might be affected at the Decatur plant.

“I cannot tell you specifically if and where staffing reductions might come,” Chief Executive George Buckley wrote in a Dec. 17 e-mail to employees.

3M spokeswoman Donna Fleming Runyon said workers at the West Virginia plant were told earlier this month that it would close in April.

Runyon said the plant’s 10 full-time workers will be given an opportunity to seek other jobs with the company.

She said consolidating operations with 3M’s plant in Guin, will help the St. Paul, Minn.-based company be more competitive.

The Poca plant manufactures ceramics and other industrial products, while the Guin plant produces road signs and highway marking materials.