GM plans to invest millions in Valley Lordstown

By HOLLY SCHOENSTEIN

The corporation’s CEO will discuss the investment amount and purpose Thursday at the Lordstown complex.

LORDSTOWN — Less than a week before General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner is expected to visit the Lordstown plant, the company announced Friday that it has plans to invest millions of dollars in the complex.

Company spokesman Tony Sapienza would not say how much money it will invest or when, noting that Wagoner will discuss the amount and why the company has chosen to invest it here during Thursday’s visit. A ceremony will start at 2 p.m.

“We’ve got some positive things to talk about,” company spokesman Chris Lee said.

Gov. Ted Strickland and Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, and Cal Rapson, United Auto Workers International vice president of the GM division, are also scheduled to visit the plant the same day.

Sapienza confirmed the company will release the first official photos of the new compact car called the Cruze, which is expected to make an appearance at the ceremony as well.

Recent activity, such as the start of the third shift Aug. 4, has attracted national attention.

About 1,000 employees are working on the third shift, most of whom are hourly workers.

About 250 of the them have been designated as “vacation replacements” — temporary workers filling in for permanent workers who were taking time off.

“[GM] has not determined if the temporary workers will be hired in,” Sapienza said. “It’s something that’s possible. We haven’t determined our final needs yet.”

The decision whether to hire these workers is expected toward the end of the summer, Lee said.

Although the Lordstown facility has been the subject of a lot of excitement after the start of the third shift and the anticipation of the Cruze, GM also has focused its eyes overseas.

In a press release posted for the media Friday on the company’s Web site, GM announced its investment plans worth $445 million to build a new engine plant and upgrade an existing vehicle engine plant in Rayong, Thailand.

Construction started Friday for the new 156,000-square-foot plant that will be the company’s first diesel engine plant in Southeast Asia. Four-cylinder diesel engines will be manufactured there for use by Chevrolet in Thailand and “other global markets and brands.”

The existing engine plant will be retooled for the production of the next-generation Chevy Colorado, a small pickup truck, which is slated to begin in 2010.

hschoenstein@vindy.com