GM CEO Mary Barra writes to Mahoning Valley students

February 6, 2019 at 12:10a.m.

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

Mary Barra New Letter

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GM CEO Mary Barra wrote to students in the Mahoning Valley, thanking them for sending drawings and letters to her during the holiday season that asked the automaker to invest in growing jobs at GM Lordstown.

“Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your pictures with me. I see how much you care about your family, friends and community, and I understand why you are sad and worried. I want you to know I care about them, and about you,” Barra wrote.

In November, GM announced it plans to idle five of its North American plants, including the Lordstown complex. The automaker also will stop making the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze; the plant is “unallocated” after March 1, meaning there is not another product lined up to make. Whether that shutdown will be permanent is not yet clear and likely will be determined during negotiations between the corporation and the United Auto Workers union next year. Layoffs are estimated to be about 1,500 jobs.

“Like you, I am proud of them and grateful for the years they’ve been part of our GM family. We’re working hard to continue finding ways to support them and your community,” Barra wrote.

“We’re starting by offering jobs at other GM plants for many of the Lordstown workers. We’re also partnering with the United Way in your neighborhoods to help families who decide not to relocate to another GM plant,” Barra continued, before thanking the students for being involved in their community.

“I was really excited when I heard about it [Mary Barra writing back to students],” UAW Local 1112 President and Drive It Home Ohio co-chairman Dave Green said Tuesday. “Obviously, we appreciate all of the kids, teachers, schools and school districts who supported us. It was a powerful message.”

“I think the emotional, heartfelt message from the more than 5,000 students who sent CEO Barra either a letter or drew a picture had an impact,” Green also said in a Tuesday news release. “We remain hopeful that General Motors will recognize we have the hardest working, most dedicated people in the world right here in the Mahoning Valley, and that we have been part of the GM family for 53 years, and you don’t turn your back on family.”

James Dignan, Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber president and Drive It Home Ohio co-chairman, said he thought the result of Barra’s writing back was a good thing.

“It’s cool because we’ve been talking about these things done at a grass-roots level, [and we] raised awareness locally and at a [Washington] D.C. level,” he said Tuesday. “This isn’t something we came up with, but something the superintendents and kids came up with and sent off, and she [Barra] actually saw them [the letters]. I thought that was of significant note – the fact that these are having an intended impact and drawing attention to the issues we’re seeing locally.”

Dignan also noted in a Tuesday news release: “Like her, we are proud of them and grateful for the way they all support their community and GM Lordstown. She now understands how this community is unified and ready to help General Motors move into the next generation of auto manufacturing.”

“We talked to a General Motors representative, and he said they looked at every drawing and read every letter. The letter from CEO Barra is to all the students at our schools in the Mahoning Valley who stepped up for workers. We are grateful to them, their families, their teachers and administrators,” said Terry Armstrong, superintendent of the Lords-town School District.

The Drive it Home Ohio campaign is a grass-roots coalition of business, labor and elected leaders who have come together to urge General Motors to reinvest in keeping the GM Lords-town manufacturing facility open.

Bob Hannon, president of United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, said previously that the loss of jobs at GM Lordstown could affect United Way and the community agencies that it helps to fund.

“Right now GM corporate is committed to supporting us for two years,” Hannon said. “But unless something changes, we anticipate a significant impact on the United Way.”

Still, Hannon said he remains confident and optimistic about its future.