Ryan tours GM Lordstown

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, got a close-up look at the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Plant during a tour Monday.

In February, the United Auto Workers went to Washington, D.C., for the 2018 National Community Action Program Conference, where UAW leaders got to meet with congressional representatives. Local leaders met with Ryan.

The keynote speaker at the event was U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Cleveland.

Glenn Johnson, president of UAW Local 1112, said when they met with Ryan, he asked how he could help the local plant. Local 1112 represents the 3,000 workers at the Lordstown complex.

“Part of that process was to get him in the GM facility again,” Johnson said.

GM Lordstown builds the Chevrolet Cruze, a compact car that has directly seen the impact of the change in consumer preference with declines in its sales.

In 2017, Consumer Reports named the Cruze a “Top Pick” for the compact-car segment. The Cruze is the first domestic compact car in more than a decade to receive the “Top Pick” title. From 2013 through 2016, the Subaru Impreza took the title.

“This car that’s being produced in Lordstown is getting all kinds of national recognition,” Ryan said. “It was amazing to be there and hear about it. Everybody in our community should be very proud.”

Johnson said the plant is “making great strides” in accomplishing what GM wants.

“What our position is, and our job and task is, to make sure that we put ourselves in the best possible position so when the negotiations open up to say if there’s any future product out there, that the hardworking men and women in Lordstown deserve that product and to bring it here to us,” Johnson said.