GM LORDSTOWN | Diner patrons talk about plant closure

LORDSTOWN — Nese’s Country Cafe is a diner that sits near the General Motors plant.

The diner is warm and welcoming, and is a hang-out for GM workers.

Normally, the atmosphere is bustling, but the mood among workers has been somber, said Lisa Miller, a server at the diner.

‘’You get to know people, there’s a lot of camaraderie. It’s sad to see a lot of people having to uproot and move,’’ she said.

The end of the Chevrolet Cruze production at the plant will no doubt have an impact on this diner, where servers know customers by name and people bring their families for a homemade meal.

‘’Lordstown doesn’t have anything to bring people in anymore, so if you don’t work here, or you don’t live here, you’re probably not coming here. There’s not a lot of foot traffic,’’ Miller said.

Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill stopped at the diner for lunch today.

He said Tuesday night was a largely sleepless night for him.

‘’It’s a real downer,’’ he said. ‘’People have known it was coming for a long time, but they’re kind of hitting the wall today. They’re wondering what comes next.’’

Despite the anxiety of not knowing what comes next, Hill remains positive.

‘’I’m hoping we get a new product. They haven’t said they are shuttering down for good,’’ Hill said.

Some people speculate on whether GM will bring a new product to the plant, but Miller has another idea.

‘’I hope a foreign-car company buys that plant,’’ she said. ‘’They don’t screw their people over like this American car companies seem to do. Those foreign cars are built right here on American soil employing American people.’’

She added the shuttering of production at the plant is a ‘’drop kick to the face’’ after people have been told for so long to ‘Buy American’ and after car companies were bailed out by taxpayers a little more than a decade ago.

Miller sees the sadness not just at work, but at home. One of her neighbors has a daughter in high school and another in college, but had to leave them behind so she could transfer to the Toronto GM plant and support her family. Her high-school daughter wanted to stay and graduate with her friends.

It’s not every day media descend on the diner, but this afternoon it was a hot spot, with TV news cameras swarming around.

Not just local media, but reporters from Columbus and Washington, D.C., too.

In between, diner staff quietly talked about what these next couple days will mean for workers.

Patrick Hodovanic, a diner patron who works at the Metalico plant nearby, said he saw seven to 10 people from General Motors and automotive supply company Magna, which shut down in the wake of General Motors ceasing production of the Chevrolet Cruze, coming into his workplace with resumes.

‘’Everybody’s scrambling to figure something out,’’ he said.

He said he previously worked in the steel industry, so he knows what it’s like to be in the situation that General Motors workers find themselves in now. When asked if he had any advice for them, he said there is nothing you can say that makes it better for these people.

David Martin of McDonald, another diner patron, said he used to hangout in Lordstown in high school.

He has friends who work for the General Motors plant, and said he can’t understand why General Motors made their decision on Lordstown.

‘’I knew a lot of people worked there and it’s hard to understand how GM could make that decision with such a workforce,’’ he said. ‘’In this area, you have qualified guys from engineers to people sweeping the floor they were top-notch people. They worked hard and did their job.’’

Like Mayor Hill, he has hope that there will be a new products. He suggested an electric car might do well.

‘’The encouragement I see is that they are going to keep the plant ready,’’ he said.