Valley needs to improve odds for GM Lordstown

An auto industry analyst believes that General Motors Corp.'s Lordstown plant has a "better than 50-50 chance" of landing a new vehicle or updated Chevrolet Cobalt after production of the current model ends in June 2009. The Mahoning Valley must work to improve those odds.
And we can -- as was demonstrated in the late 1990s. At that time, the Lordstown assembly plant was one of three locations under consideration by GM for a new product to replace the highly successful Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire.
All segments of region's population, led by labor and management at the plant and political leaders from both parties, came together in the common purpose of keeping the plant open.
The state, first led by Republican Gov. George V. Voinovich and then by Gov. Bob Taft, also a Republican, played a major role in the Valley's campaign.
Voinovich and Taft both visited GM's headquarters in Detroit and made it clear to the the chief executive officer and others that keeping the Lordstown plant open was the top priority. Then they put all of the state's resources behind the effort to make GM an offer it couldn't refuse.
The result was a 1 billion investment by GM in upgrading the plant and the launching of the Chevrolet Cobalt and the Pontiac G5.
Now, the future of the Lordstown facility hangs in the balance, and we need to rise to the occasion -- again.
In a front page story in Friday's Vindicator, Greg Gardner of Harbor Consulting in Troy, Mich., said that labor and management are working through some difficult issues, which is why doomsday scenarios should be viewed with some skepticism.
Gardner bases his opinion that the Lordstown plant has a better than 50-50 chance of getting a new vehicle or an updated Chevrolet Cobalt on this fact: GM has invested heavily in the plant.
"GM will think long and hard before it will walk away from something like that," he said.
Pessimistic view
However, two weeks ago, another auto industry analyst, Erich Merkle of IRN in Grand Rapids, Mich., said Lordstown is No. 2 on his list of GM plants most likely to close. No. 1 is the Moraine, Ohio, plant.
Merkle's comments were made just before contract talks between GM and UAW Local 1112 at Lordstown were suspended. Union officials in Detroit wanted to look into demands the company was making, especially with regard to the 10-hour shifts with no overtime and the plan to replace janitors who earn 28 an hour with 12-an-hour nonunion janitors.
Needless to say, the past week was one of high anxiety for the region. The prospect of the Lordstown plant being shuttered because the two sides could not come to an agreement became very real.
But late last week, there were reports that contract talks would resume and that GM is continuing the work it had begun in preparation for the new model.
That's the good news. The not so good news is that nothing is guaranteed until General Motors makes an announcement in Lordstown's favor.
In other words, the campaign to secure the new product must go on -- with the active participation of Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland.
We have called on Strickland, who took office in January, to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and let GM know that the Lordstown plant is his top priority. In addition, the governor should assign Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, who also is the director of the Department of Development, to find out what incentives the state must offer GM to help it make the right decision.
The future of the Lordstown plant is too important to be left to chance.