America’s auto czar reaffirms federal commitment to Valley

When President Barack Obama hailed the resurgence of the American auto industry during his State of Union speech Tuesday, he was talking about the Mahoning Valley — even though he did not mention the region by name.

“On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse,” Obama told the nationally televised joint session of Congress. “Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world’s number-one automaker.”

And GM’s Lordstown assembly complex is largely responsible for the company’s success, given that the car that’s made here, the Chevrolet Cruze, is consistently one of the best, if not the best, seller in the domestic fleet. The Cruze nameplate has become internationally renowned with production facilities in Europe and Asia.

But the success of the Lordstown complex has not only put the Mahoning Valley in a positive light, it has attracted the attention of the Obama White House.

“Lordstown is not lost on the administration,” the director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, told Vindicator writers during a visit to the newspaper Wednesday. “It was not lost [on the administration] before I got there, and it’s not lost now.”

The director, also commonly referred to as the auto czar, is Jay Williams, former mayor of Youngstown, who joined the Obama administration in August.

Williams was in Youngstown to participate in the Mahoning Valley Small Business Manufacturers Roundtable. The message he delivered to the business leaders was an elaboration of President Obama’s pitch to Congress:

“Join me in a national commitment to train 2 million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. My administration has already lined up more companies that want to help. ... Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers — places that teach people skills that businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing.”

Training programs

Williams told the business leaders that the administration would work with them to establish job training programs at Eastern Gateway Community College and that money would be available from Washington to help pay the start-up costs.

But with the success of the GM Lordstown plant — the company invested 350 million to upgrade the facility for the production of the Cruze — and with V&M Star’s $650 million investment in a new steel pipe-making plant and a $57 million investment by V&M, in partnership with VAM USA, in another production facility, Williams was asked if the Valley is still considered a region negatively impacted by the loss of manufacturing?

“Recent successes haven’t negated the need” for federal government assistance, he said, noting that the collapse of the steel industry three decades ago devastated the Valley’s economy.

Companies wanting to locate in the region will receive assistance from Washington, the director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers pledged.

Having Williams in the Obama administration is proving to be a good thing for the Valley.