Saturday, March 12, 2016
Staff report
LORDSTOWN
The doors at the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Plant once again will open to the public in May.
GM and United Auto Workers Local 1112 will celebrate 50 years of building vehicles at the plant May 20 and 21.
The first car built at Lords-town left the assembly line at 10 a.m. April 28, 1966. It was a four-door Chevrolet Impala sport sedan with fawn trim and built for Martin Chevrolet of Warren.
To celebrate, GM and UAW Local 1112, which includes 3,000 assembly-plant workers at the plant, will have an anniversary open house from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. May 20 for the community to learn about UAW-GM, modern-day vehicle manufacturing, the Lordstown-built, next-generation Chevrolet Cruze and the history of the plant.
“Thanks to the support we have received from our customers and this community, Lordstown has established a strong U.S. manufacturing footprint that directly and indirectly employs thousands of people in our region,” said Steve Notar Donato, Lordstown plant manager, and Glenn Johnson, UAW Local 1112 president, in a joint statement.
There also will be a 50th- anniversary car show May 21 in the parking area of the Lordstown east plant off Hallock-Young Road.
Open-house registration forms are available at the 17 Chevrolet All-Star dealerships in Northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
Tour guests are advised to register in advance at the Chevrolet dealerships. The walking tour route is about one hour.
Registration forms for the car show also are available at the Chevrolet All-Star dealerships and can be downloaded at www.uaw1112.com.
The last open house at Lordstown took place in May 2011.
The best-selling Chevrolet Cruze has been built at the complex since fall 2010. Workers now are building the next-generation Chevrolet Cruze, which will arrive in dealerships this spring.
GM has invested more than $250 million at the Lordstown complex recently to support the build of the redesigned Cruze.
Unveiled last summer, the new Cruze comes with a sleek design, enhanced safety features and more technology.