×

Rallying for GM Lordstown plant

Vigil demands new model allocation

Tribune Chronicle / Allie Vugrincic Melanie Harris, right, a 10-year employee of the Lordstown General Motors plant, holds a sign at a roadside vigil Wednesday outside the plant’s west gate. Werner Lange, a retired teacher and Newton Falls resident, has been holding a vigil weekdays after the end of shift to support the workers at the plant, who will lose their jobs in March.

LORDSTOWN — Werner Lange, a retired school teacher and Newton Falls resident, is calling the struggle to keep the Lordstown General Motors plant alive one of “life or death” for the community.

Lange has been holding a roadside vigil every day, Monday through Friday, since the beginning of the new year in support of the Lordstown plant workers and to demand a new vehicle allocation for the plant, which is set to be idled in March.

“We’re in a life and death struggle not just for this plant, but for the viability of all the surrounding communities, including Newton Falls, where I live. If this plant sinks, we all sink,” said Lange during a vigil Wednesday.

The snow was just beginning to flurry at 3 p.m. when nearly 50 current and retired Lordstown General Motors workers and UAW Local 1112 union leaders joined Lange outside the west gate of the plant, showing their continued hope with raised fists, Drive it Home signs and UAW and American flags. Passing cars and tractor-trailers answered with a chorus of supportive honks.

A revolutionary American flag flew above the rest, invoking what Lange called “the spirit of ’76.”

“It’s going to take qualitative change, even revolutionary change, to overcome the corporate greed that is exhibited,” said Lange.

His car sported signs reminding GM that America invested in them, and it was time to return the favor. Members of UAW Local 1112 said they were grateful for Lange’s display of support.

“Every day we’re leaving our plant, and we see this fellow, who isn’t affiliated with GM, supporting us,” said Greg Slusher, a UAW Local 1112 official and 24-year employee at the plant. “We thought, we could support him, too.”

“It’s a shame it has to come to this — what they’re [GM] is doing it to the community and my fellow workers,” said Craig D. Nicholas, a UAW Local 1112 safety instructor, who had been at the roadside vigil for over an hour.

Lange likened the unallocation of the Lordstown plant to the September 19, 1977, closing of the steel mills, locally known as “Black Monday.”

“This community has never fully recovered from that Black Monday,” Lange said. “This has the potential, if [the plant] remains closed, of being a second Black Monday.”

Lange is calling for a no-emissions vehicle to be allocated to the Lordstown plant. According to Lange, GM has already invested thousands of dollars in zero-emissions vehicles, which are being hailed as cars of the future.

Dan Morgan, UAW Local 1112 shop chairman, said the Lordstown employees were working hard to let General Motors know they want to stay and work. Morgan said the UAW Local 1112 has been meeting with the International Union almost daily, and letters have been sent to GM headquarters.

“There’s not one member who wants to leave,” said Morgan.

According to Morgan, the International Union will help facilitate negotiations between the local UAW and General Motors during the annual bargaining conference, held March 11 to 15.

In the meantime, Lange is urging the community to “make a lot of noise,” to keep the plant alive. “Our future is at stake,” Lange said.

Lange will continue to stand outside the plant Monday through Friday for the hour following the end of shift until a new car is allocated, he said. UAW Local 1112 members hope to periodically join him.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
     

Starting at $4.85/week.

Subscribe Today