NY magazine to feature UAW 1112

Show of labor unity

NORTH JACKSON -- When well-known photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier let it be known she would be above the United Auto Workers Local 1112 hall in a helicopter to take photos of the building's exterior for a magazine cover, local UAW leaders thought they could do better.

They put their heads together and decided to blast out to the union's members an invitation to come to the hall on Reuther Drive SW to form a human wheel around the circle and flags in the parking lot.

The message through the union's alert system was sent somewhere between 11 and 11:30 a.m. Thursday. They figured they needed about 75 people to form the circle.

About three hours later, at least a couple hundred local members created in the circle with UAW banners and also signs, some from the Drive It Home Ohio campaign and some homemade.

The high turnout shows "they are concerned, want to come out, want to support," said UAW Local 1112 President Dave Green. "They believe in the cause, they believe we can get a product here. We're doing everything we can to push on and push forward and keep hope alive. We are not giving up."

The helicopter circled the union hall several times while Frazier, who has also visited the hall to take portraits of Local 1112 families, snapped photos overhead. She will use the photos from Thursday for a New York Times magazine cover, Green said.

Tiffany King said she was baking at her home business, Bumpers Cheesecakery in Salem, when she received the message. She said she looked at the clock and planned accordingly so she could make the 20 minutes or so drive north on state Route 45 to arrive at the hall in time for the photo.

"This is important, this affects the community, it truly affects the country," said King, who is Warren born and raised, but now lives in Salem. "This is very important and we need to let people be aware of what is going on with us."

King, a 1993 graduate of Warren John F. Kennedy High School, worked in quality control in chassis, which is very near the end of the assembly line for the Chevrolet Cruze -- the last of which rolled off the production line Wednesday.

She was responsible to make sure the interior and infotainment systems in each Cruze were installed correctly.

It may have been her last day in the plant.

"When that last vehicle hit the bend and I could see it up the stream, I had to fight back the tears," said King. "It was hard to see. Usually we have another product coming. Even though we may have the end of one vehicle, we're launching another vehicle so there might be a five-car gap and then there is something. And there was nothing, it was like a complete emptiness. It was like a death yesterday. It was hard, it was so hard."

Production of the last Cruze -- a white LS model with black interior -- wrapped at about 2:45 p.m., potentially signaling the end automaking at the sprawling 53-year-old facility.

It was the first GM plant of five the automaker plans to idle by the end of the year as it shifts focus toward making trucks, SUVs, and electric and autonomous vehicles. In the process, GM is shedding 14,000 salaried and blue-collar jobs, but the automaker has said most of its blue-collar workers who lose jobs in the U.S. will be able to transfer to other plants in the Midwest and South.

About 1,600 employees work at the Lordstown plant that, at one time, employed about 10,000.

The New York Times also has chronicled the last couple months of the effort to stave off the plant's closing, an outcome officials hope is avoidable when GM and the UAW negotiate a new contract this summer. The agreement now expires Sept. 14.

A film crew and reporter from the Times is recording footage and interviews for at least a documentary that, Green said, will air later this year on FX and then on Hulu.

The crew traveled with Green and other members of the Drive It Home Ohio campaign to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, attended a roundtable discussion with Local 1112 workers and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, at the hall and were at the rally outside the complex after Cruze production stopped Wednesday.

A reporter was also at the photo shoot on Thursday. As was Jim Berry of North Jackson, who put in 19 years at the facility. Most recently he worked in chassis.

"If me coming out and standing in the could for an hour, maybe two hours, sends a message of support that could get us a new product, it's worth the two hours out in the cold," Berry said.