Analyst bets on Lordstown GM survival

The odds of survival look good for Lordstown’s car plant, an industry analyst said.

David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said he expects union officials to be innovative and work hard at finding a way to keep the plant open as production of the Chevrolet Cobalt is scheduled to end in midyear 2009.

“My bet would be on Lordstown,” he said.

Years ago, he wouldn’t have had that faith in Lordstown, he said. But the plant showed a new spirit of labor-management cooperation in winning the Cobalt in 2002, he said.

When told that local union officials are concerned the plant would not be selected for GM’s next small car, Cole said that’s good news. The worst thing would be for union officials to think they’ve already done enough, he said.

“There’s good reason to think something will end up in that plant, but it won’t be automatic. It’s going to take a lot of hard work,” Cole said.

Word that GM is considering closing Lordstown came out this week when Local 1112 leaders told its members that they have been talking with national UAW leaders about the future of the plant. A senior UAW official in Detroit has said the plant is “very vulnerable” to closure because GM is losing money on the Cobalt.

Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at the plant, said the union knows it is in competition with other plants.

“We know we have work to do. I’m very confident that our membership knows what’s at stake. I’m very confident the bargaining committee knows what’s at stake. We’re going to get this thing done,” he said.

He’s hoping bargaining on the changes that GM wants made to the labor contract will begin in January.

Graham said GM is looking to make the plant more productive and efficient but he didn’t want to go into specifics. He added, however, that GM may want bigger changes at Lordstown than at other plants because it produces small cars, which are hard to make money on.

Tom Mock, a plant spokesman, also declined to talk about specifics but said the union and plant officials will work together to try to keep the plant open, just like they did for the Cobalt.

“We’ve been through this before,” he said.

More coverage in Wednesday's Vindicator.