United Auto Workers (UAW) at General Motors (GM) are expected to vote this weekend on a tentative deal negotiators have reached with the company. UAW workers who lost their jobs when GM Lordstown shut down in March had hoped the national agreement would include a future for their plant. Sen. Rob Portman said it’s disappointing that it doesn’t.
“It’s good that they have a tentative agreement because if it’s approved people will get back to work, which is a good thing. It’s bad, in my view, because apparently there’s nothing in there for the plant in Lordstown.”
Portman said he’d like to see GM recommit to the Lordstown plant which is currently unallocated. GM said it will bring battery cell production to the Lordstown area as it moves toward production of new electric model vehicles.
"It’s a sad day in the Valley," Congressman Tim Ryan (D-OH 13) said in a statement. “GM has been a part of our community for over half a century," Ryan said of the plant which opened in 1966 and has employed thousands of northeast Ohioans. He criticized the company's chief executive officer. "After nearly a year of urging CEO Mary Barra to bring a new product to the plant, GM has turned its back on the very people who worked to make this company what it is today—the same people who bailed GM out when they were on the verge of bankruptcy." Ryan also criticized President Trump, who told workers not to sell their homes. "Where is he now?" Ryan queried.