GM FUTURE | DeWine gets no commitment from GM's Barra about Lordstown's future

DETROIT — General Motors CEO Mary Barra offered little hope Wednesday night to the employees at Detroit-Hamtramck and Lordstown assembly plants that new vehicles will be assigned to the plants to keep them running, according to an article on the Detroit Free Press website this morning,

Also, after a 45-minute meeting this morning with Barra and other GM officials in Detroit, Gov. Mike DeWine came away without a commitment from the company about the future of the Lordstown plant.

GM faces harsh backlash after its announcement Nov. 26 that it would idle Detroit-Hamtramck, Lordstown Assembly and Oshawa Assembly in Ontario by the end of 2019. It said it would also close transmission plants, one in Warren and one near Baltimore. In all, about 6,500 hourly jobs are in danger.

"When we made the very difficult decision about the plants impacted, we have other plants that have lower capacity utilization that we'd want to increase," Barra told reporters after a fireside chat she did at the Automotive News World Congress.

GM told the Canadian auto union last week it would stick with its plan to close the Oshawa plant.

Asked Wednesday if Detroit-Hamtramck or Lordstown could get one of the 20 new electric vehicles GM plans to bring to market in the next decade, Barra said, "We have more products coming that we will build in the United States and we'll provide opportunities." But she added, "We need to make sure the capacity is up at other plants that we're still working to improve."

DeWine said today he made it clear to Barra and the others that he wants to see another product in Lordstown by GM. If not, DeWine said he wants GM to work with the state to help facilitate another company to move into the complex.