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Lordstown GM worker to be guest of Brown’s in DC
NORTH JACKSON
A Lordstown General Motors complex worker will be U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s only invited guest for today’s State of the Union address on the House floor.
“I’m very nervous, but what other time will you get to see the State of the Union address in person and get to visit the White House?” said Elizabeth Williams of North Jackson, who’s worked at the Lordstown GM plant for 17 years. “It’s going to be very exciting. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I couldn’t pass it up.”
Brown, a Democrat from Avon, wanted to invite a Lordstown GM worker to highlight the importance of automotive jobs in the state and the success of that particular facility, said Allison Preiss, his spokeswoman.
The federal government provided a financial bailout to the American auto industry in 2009.
“The auto business would look very different if not for the auto restructuring” program, Preiss said.
Brown officials asked union leaders at the Lordstown facility to find someone interested in joining the senator during the State of the Union address.
Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 at the Lordstown GM plant, asked Williams if she wanted to be Brown’s guest at the event.
While in Washington, D.C., Williams, 48, plans to talk to legislators about the auto bailout.
“I want to thank them for what they did for GM,” she said. “Other plants closed, and people were laid off. I, along with others at Lordstown, appreciate the work done to save the company.”
Williams is the single mother of two sons.
Her youngest, Zachary, 19, will graduate high school in a few months and works as a part-time dispatcher for the Columbiana police department. He is studying to be a state highway patrolman.
He will join his mother in Washington, D.C., but cannot attend the State of the Union because each senator is allowed to invite only one guest.
Her other son, Bryan, 24, is an iron worker, working on the V&M Star $650 million expansion project.