Has GM bailed on the Valley?

On Monday, leading politicians and business, labor and community leaders will come together to send a clear message to General Motors: You’ll have a fight on your hands if you decide to shutter the Lordstown assembly complex.

Too bad there won’t be anyone from GM’s management at the plant to witness the launch of the “Drive It Home” campaign at 10:30 a.m. at the United Auto Workers Local 1112 union hall in Warren.

The giant automaker has apparently decided not to participate in this supremely important endeavor on behalf of the Mahoning Valley. That decision is cause for concern.

As Vindicator business writer Jordyn Grzelewski noted in a front-page story Friday, a similar campaign was launched in 1988 when the future of the Lordstown plant was uncertain. Production of the Chevrolet Cavalier was winding down and the assembly complex set its sights on a new model, the Chevrolet Cobalt.

Several plants were in competition, which prompted business, labor and government officials to undertake a Valley-wide effort. What was significant about the “Bring It Home” campaign was the active involvement of management and labor from the Lordstown plant. The presence of top managers and union leaders gave credence to the argument that the complex had entered a new era of labor-management relations – as evidenced by a first-of-its-kind contract that became the standard in the industry.

Valley residents participated in a letter-writing campaign to influence GM decision-makers in Detroit, while businesses showed their support by displaying banners and posters.

That’s why the absence of GM management at Monday’s launch of the “Drive It Home” push is troubling.

If the executives in Detroit were committed to keeping the 52-year-old plant in the Mahoning Valley open, they would have ordered local managers to actively participate in the campaign.

Instead, Tom Mock, the plant’s communications manager, offered a feeble statement that merely served to bolster the belief of many Valley residents that the news isn’t good:

“It will be interesting to see what comes out of it. We hope that it’s a positive experience in support of our team.”

Corporate gobbledygook at its finest. Mock would fit in well with the Trump White House.

Dave Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112 and one of the organizers of the “Drive It Home” campaign, offered his take on the lack of management involvement: The locals are getting their marching orders from headquarters, and they’ve been told to stand down.

Mock’s expression of “hope” that the launch of the campaign is a “positive experience in support of our team” has the same hollow ring to it as the insistence of corporate that no decision has been made regarding the future of the Lordstown complex.

If seeing is believing, then what we’re seeing is that there’s just one shift left to build the Chevrolet Cruze compact car.

GM has acknowledged that the Cruze, at one time the top-seller in the company’s fleet, is no longer in demand. That’s because trucks, SUVs and crossovers have been the rage for some time. These vehicles are not the gas-guzzlers they once were. They are sleekly designed with all sorts of bells and whistles, are fuel-efficient and reasonably priced.

The handwriting on the wall of GM’s Lordstown complex first appeared last year when the third shift was eliminated as the number of unsold Cruzes grew.

The termination of the second shift earlier this year could be considered the exclamation point to the unspoken message that the days of the Lordstown complex are numbered.

Yet, company officials have refused to publicly comment, thereby leaving the remaining workers and Mahoning Valley residents in the dark.

GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra, who has been thrashed by this writer for her refusal to publicly discuss the plant’s future, was noncommittal when she met with Ohio’s two senators.

Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, and Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, in separate sessions, pressed her about a new product for the Lordstown plant after production of the Cruze ends. She would not commit.

Indeed, Barra made it clear that retooling the Lordstown plant to build trucks or SUVs is not in the cards. She told them that the paint shop is designed for compact cars and that it would take more than $100 million for the construction of a new shop to accommodate larger vehicles.

The senators came away from their meetings with a sense of foreboding.

Brown and Portman both believe President Donald Trump, who promised the people of the Valley he would reinvigorate the domestic auto industry, holds the key to Lordstown’s future.

The senators have publicly criticized Barra and other company officials for furloughing autoworkers here while expanding GM’s plant in Mexico to build a new version of the iconic Chevrolet Blazer.

The CEO insists the decision to assign the Blazer to Mexico was made long before the sweeping tax cuts pushed by Trump and passed by the Republican- controlled Congress. The cuts resulted in a huge financial windfall for GM and other American corporations.

And yet, General Motors won’t commit to the future of the Lordstown assembly complex.

That’s why the absence of the plant’s management in the “Drive It Home” campaign can only be viewed as a last-ditch effort.

But despite the uncertain future, the participants remain cautiously optimistic.

Monday’s press conference will feature Sen. Brown; U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, and Bill Johnson, R-Marietta; Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill; Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber president and CEO James Dignan; and UAW’s Green.

They will make clear that there’s strong community support for GM growing its investment in the Lordstown complex.

As UAW’s Green told The Vindicator’s Grzelewski, “The end goal is to get product and commitment here in Lordstown, at the GM facility. We’d like to see our plant up and running on three shifts.”

It’s a goal that everyone in the Valley strongly supports. However, the ultimate decision rests with GM, which has chosen to keep this region guessing about its plans for the Lordstown complex.