GM Lordstown workers gather to pray for future of plant

By JORDYN GRZELEWSKI

jgrzelewski@vindy.com

LORDSTOWN

GM PRAYER VIGIL

Video

Workers at the GM Lordstown complex gathered for a prayer vigil outside the plant today. GM recently announced production of the Chevrolet Cruze would stop in March 2019 leaving more than 1,500 workers out of a job.

A wind chill in the 20s wasn’t going to stop Venus Walker from joining in a prayer vigil at the General Motors Lordstown plant Thursday afternoon.

“It’s so cold. But there’s nothing to block us – rain or cold,” said Walker, 58, of Warren, who said she’s worked at the plant for 12 years and was laid off a few months ago – a tough situation for the mother of two children in college. “We have to fight for our plight.”

She added: “Hopefully, the government will hear us.”

Walker was among a large crowd that gathered at a flagpole in front of the plant to pray and stand together in solidarity as they process the decision announced this week: General Motors will cease production of the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze next year, and the plant has no guarantee of getting a new product.

Come March 1, the plant will idle indefinitely.

Before Ken Smith, 54, of Berlin Center walked over to the flagpole to participate in the vigil, he stopped to secure a sign to his windshield. A GM logo pictured at the top, the sign read: “We invested in you. Now it’s your turn to invest in us.”

Smith worked in the fabricating plant for six years before being laid off earlier this year with the plant’s second shift.

“It’s awful,” he said of this week’s news. “It’s hard to describe just how terrible I feel for the thousands of people it’s going to affect.”

Smith doesn’t know what he’s going to do – and he said the uncertainty makes the situation more challenging.

“I hope for the best for GM and this community and my brothers and sisters in the union,” he said.

PRAY FOR WISDOM

The vigil was led by United Auto Workers Local 1112 Chaplain Norm Perry and other faith leaders.

“We pray for wisdom for upper management. We pray for wisdom for our leaders in the union, both international and local,” Perry prayed. “Lord, we know you are in control above everything. You’re up over multibillion corporations.”

“We need your angels here in Lordstown,” another prayer leader said.

The vigil ended with a rendition of “God Bless America.”

“More power to the UAW,” Walker called out, raising her fist in the air.

The vigil was UAW Local 1112 President Dave Green’s idea. There were plans to have a vigil even before Monday’s announcement, as part of the Drive It Home campaign to rally support for the plant amid shift layoffs and declining sales of the Cruze.

But Monday’s announcement about the plant brought added emotion to Thursday’s event.

“I feel honored to be here. I was glad people came out. There’s a lot of power in the power of God,” Green said.

Drive It Home is asking community members to pray for the plant, light candles and use a Facebook profile frame featuring the hashtag “Save Lordstown.” It’s all part of an effort to rally the community together.

Early today, Green and GM shop chairman Danny Morgan will head to Detroit to meet with representatives of the international union. They are bringing with them a list of questions, and hope to have some answers early next week.

RYAN, BARRA SPEAK

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, continued his efforts in support of the plant. He spoke on the phone with GM CEO Mary Barra Thursday morning.

Ryan said he “expressed my frustration and disappointment” with GM’s decision and told Barra “that I am focused on bringing a new product to GM Lordstown, and I will work with her and the Trump administration to get that done – that is my highest priority.”

“I described to Mary Barra that the Mahoning Valley is rich in resources that can help GM stay in Lordstown. Whether it’s the Youngstown Business Incubator or the Tech Belt Innovation Center, we are second to none when it comes to additive manufacturing and 3D printing,” Ryan said.

He also took part in a news conference with several other Democratic members of Congress from Ohio and Michigan (GM also will idle two plants in Michigan, as well as Maryland and Ontario, Canada).

During the news conference, Ryan talked about how deeply the loss of GM Lordstown will be felt in this region.

“This has been a gut punch of epic proportions, because when we lost steel and we lost some small and midsize manufacturers, we always had the GM plant,” he said.

He sharply criticized U.S. tax policy and called for a “reset” of U.S. economic policy.

“What we’re trying to say here, collectively, is that this has been going on for 30 to 40 years in our country, and we have been sold a bill of goods on tax policy ... where if you cut taxes for the wealthiest people in the country, at a time of maximum profits, that is somehow going to trickle down to the communities that we represent,” Ryan said. “This has been a bunch of baloney – and this Congress just doubled down on a [fraudulent] economic policy. Who always has to bear the brunt of this? It’s the worker.”

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, also planned to speak with Barra this week. He was in touch with GM’s vice president of public policy, as well as Valley leaders, earlier this week.

COMMISSIONERS WEIGH IN

Also Thursday, Mahoning County commissioners said they want to join with their regional counterparts in asking President Donald Trump to meet in the Valley on GM Lordstown’s idling.

Commissioner David Ditzler said the first car he purchased was a cream-colored Chevrolet Vega, which came off the Lordstown line. He put 160,000 miles on it, he said.

“I grew up when the plant was opening and a lot of our fathers were starting in Lordstown and working locally. It was a real sense of pride,” he said.

“The trickle-down effect – I think they say it’s four or five jobs for every job that’s lost – it’s not just about the GM Lordstown families, it’s about all of us,” Ditzler continued. “Every single one of us is going to be impacted in some way, shape or form.”

Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti called for the Mahoning commissioners to form a roundtable of county commissioners in the region to show the impact of the unallocated plant.

“We don’t want to take this sitting down,” she said.

Commissioner Anthony Traficanti said the Lordstown plant was, at one time, the company’s “No. 1 producer,” and Chevrolet’s Cobalt and Cruze models outsold Toyota’s similar

offerings.

“I look at it as corporate greed, and the workers are getting hammered,” he said.” [They are] taking advantage of overseas markets. That’s where Congress has to come in and adjust our trade policies.

However, the fact GM Lordstown was not closed outright is, Traficanti said, a positive sign.

“To me, that gives Lordstown somewhat of a glimmer of hope to get another product in here,” he said. “The labor force here is second-to-none to do it.”

BROWN, TRUMP SPEAK

In other developments, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, spoke with Trump on the phone Wednesday night.

“I called on President Trump to support my American Cars, American Jobs Act, which I first introduced this summer,” Brown said in a statement after the phone call with the president. “The president said he liked the bill. My office sent a copy of the bill over to the White House tonight and we will continue doing everything we can to fight for Ohio jobs. I’m glad the president said the right things [Wednesday night], but now he needs to follow it up with action. I’ve been calling on him to help save these jobs for months, and it’s long past time that we stop subsidizing corporations that send jobs overseas and start supporting American workers.”

Brown introduced the American Cars, American Jobs Act in August after layoffs at the Lordstown plant in January 2017 and June 2018 and the company’s announcement it would build the Chevy Blazer at a plant in Mexico.

The bill, if signed into law, would offer consumers a $3,500 discount on many American-built and assembled cars, trucks and SUVs and would revoke the Republican corporate tax cut on auto manufacturers that ship jobs overseas.

Reporter Justin Dennis contributed to this story.