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Trumbull County officials are beginning to plan for life with a General Motors plant in Lordstown. GM announced this morning that there is no new car coming to Lordstown and that in March, employees would be laid off.
Dave Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, said, “General Motors informed me this morning that as of March 1, the GM Lordstown Complex would go on ‘non-allocated status,’ and that they would no longer be producing the Chevy Cruze here or in Mexico. That means no one will be working at Lordstown as of March 1.
“But we are not hopeless, we are hopeful. And we are determined to do everything we can to convince General Motors to make Lordstown part of the future of auto manufacturing for this great company that we have been like family with for 52 years,” Green said.
Trumbull County Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said, “This sort of news is unfortunate, to say the least, and will have a ripple effect on the entire region. The impact General Motors has had on our county is immeasurable.
"We’re already conservatively putting together our 2019 budget, and we’re gathering information to see how this will impact the budget and the county moving forward.”
“Between now and March ’19, we need to be all hands on deck to bring another product to the Lordstown facility. I’m confident we have some of the most capable and hardworking individuals in the Valley, and General Motors needs to be made aware of it,” he said.
Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said, "Until I hear the words permanently shuttered, I’m going to hold out hope.
"What’s happened isn’t because of the workers; it’s the marketplace. The cars aren’t selling … It’s market-driven. People aren’t buying cars and we just happen to have the wrong product."
Hill said the village is in a position to weather the loss of the General Motors if a new vehicle isn’t coming. The village has virtually no debt, and he expects a surplus in the capital improvements budget.
"We’ll take a wait-and-see approach. I hate to say it, but there are other communities who rely on General Motors more than we do,” Hill said.
James Dignan, president and CEO of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber said the chamber will work GM, the unions and everyone involved to bring something new to the plant as well as working with regional chambers from Cleveland to Pittsburgh to bring employment opportunities to the region.
“The ‘Drive It Home’ campaign is about being realistic but also being prepared. We have an asset there that is being under-utilized, and it’s been under-utilized for some time. Now it’s about making sure we’re ready for the next opportunity.
"When you see change coming, you have to be ready for it, and we haven’t always been with our strategic planning,” Dignan said.
If the future is electric vehicles or autonomous vehicles, the Valley has to position itself to take advantage of those innovations.
“The workforce is here and available in the Mahoning Valley and ready for what’s next.”
General Motors said it will lay off 14,700 factory and white-collar workers in North America and put five plants up for possible closure -- including in Lordstown -- as it restructures to cut costs and focus more on autonomous and electric vehicles.
The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won’t be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.
Besides Lordstown, plants without products include assembly plants in Detroit and Oshawa, Ontario. Also affected are transmission factories in Warren, Mich., as well as Baltimore.
The reduction includes 8,100 white-collar workers, some of whom will take buyouts and others who will be laid off. Most of the affected factories build cars that won’t be sold in the U.S. after next year. They could close or they could get different vehicles to build. They will be part of contract talks with the United Auto Workers union next year.
Plants without products include assembly plants in Detroit; Lordstown, Ohio; and Oshawa, Ontario. Also affected are transmission factories in Warren, Michigan, as well as Baltimore.
More than 6,000 factory workers could lose jobs in the U.S. and Canada, although some could transfer to truck and SUV plants.
GM, the largest automaker in the U.S. and includes the Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC brands, said the moves will save $6 billion in cash by the end of next year, including $4.5 billion in recurring annual cost reductions and a $1.5 billion reduction in capital spending.
Those cuts are in addition to $6.5 billion that the company has announced by the end of this year.
GM doesn’t foresee an economic downturn and is making the cuts “to get in front of it while the company is strong and while the economy is strong,” CEO Mary Barra told reporters.
Barra said GM is still hiring people with expertise in software and electric and autonomous vehicles, and many of those who will lose their jobs are now working on conventional cars with internal combustion engines.
Barra said the industry is changing rapidly and moving toward electric propulsion, autonomous vehicles and ride-sharing, and GM must adjust with it.
The factories up for possible closure are part of GM’s effort “to right-size our capacity for the realities of the marketplace,” as consumers shift away from cars to trucks and SUVs.
The company, she said, has invested in newer architectures for trucks and SUVs so it can cut capital spending while still raising investment in autonomous and electric vehicles.
The salaried reductions amount to 15 percent of GM’s North American workforce out of 54,000. At the factories, 3,000 workers could lose jobs in Canada and another 3,600 in the U.S. Some U.S. workers would transfer to truck and SUV plants where GM is increasing output, the company said.
GM has offered buyouts to 18,000 retirement-eligible workers with a dozen or more years of service. It would not say how many have accepted the buyouts, but it was short of the company’s target because GM said there will be white-collar layoffs.
The company expects to take a pretax charge of $3 billion to $3.8 billion due to the actions, including up to $1.8 billion of asset write downs and pension charges. The charges will take place in the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first quarter of next year.