Fed judge keeps UAW lawsuit over plant closings in Ohio

YOUNGSTOWN — U.S. District Court Judge Benita Pearson this week denied General Motors’ motion to move a pending lawsuit by United Automobile Workers International to the Michigan courts.

GM sought the venue change “for the convenience of parties and witnesses,” as both the UAW and GM are headquartered in Detroit, the ruling reads.

The union’s suit, filed in February to stop closure of the automaker’s Lordstown plant and award pay to laid-off workers, claims about 1,200 of its active members were employed there, compared to a few hundred at plants in Michigan and Maryland.

The ruling states the “vast majority” of employees affected by the closures, 74 percent, were employed in the Ohio court’s Northern District, and the suit should remain in Ohio, Judge Pearson wrote.